Requirements Engineering for the Development of Disruptive Systems Engineering Innovations

System development processes today are characterized by a certain flow or structure that they follow. Most of these processes begin with the definition of requirements or needs that are introduced by the stakeholders. Yet, the effects and actual satisfaction of the requirements occurs further down the line with a significant time delay. This discrepancy makes achieving the objectives of a development project difficult, which can be especially critical when it comes to products that are supposed to or have the potential to disrupt a market or sector. To address these issues, the paper at hand shows a concept based on a disruptive technology framework that ties attributes of these technologies to the requirement definition and elicitation. By connecting the potential for disruption to the requirements, instead of analyzing the circumstances retroactively, specific aspects can be evaluated regarding their impact and sensitivity. The understanding that this impact analysis yields helps to set up and guide a system development for disruption to alleviate issues that might reduce the system’s potential. The concept is shown using the example of new vaccine developments.