Towards socio-technical requirements engineering for regulatory compliance

As the digital transformation is gaining momentum in the agenda and strategic plans of both the public and the private sector, it is important to analyze how requirements engineering will contribute to the making of the digital world. From the technological perspective, software and systems engineering are `threatened' by the social dynamics and versatility that can be hardly captured with available techniques. From the social perspective, humanity is challenged with a new generation of digital systems, like social media platforms, that have a transformational impact on existing social orders. Public requirements for such systems are hardly well-specified that eventually may result in large-scale disruptions. A more systematic and holistic approach in requirements engineering addressing both the technical and the social aspects of the systems is needed. This paper outlines the hypothesis about the applicability of a socio-technical approach as a single theoretical framework for addressing simultaneously technical and social aspects of existing issues and further planned investigation of this assumption. The hypothesis is made as a part of the future PhD research on regulatory governance of software systems and particularly regulatory compliance and public requirements implementation in the requirements engineering at the particular example of media platforms.