A Comparative Systematic Analysis of Stakeholder’s Identification Methods in Requirements Elicitation

[Context and Motivation] Before eliciting and gathering requirements for a software project, it is considered pivotal to know about concerned stakeholders. It becomes hard to elicit the actual system requirements without identifying relevant stakeholders, leading the software project to failure. Despite the paramount importance of stakeholder identification in requirement elicitation, it has been given less attention in the software engineering literature. [Method] For this purpose, we conducted a thorough Systematic Literature Review (SLR) on stakeholder identification (SI) and its methods in requirement elicitation. However, previously, a literature study on SI in the requirement elicitation was conducted. We found that no one has proposed any standard or baseline research method for stakeholder identification, stakeholder assessment, and stakeholder interaction up to date according to our knowledge. It provides an opportunity to update the current SLR on SI in requirements elicitation from 2011 till 2021 to search for a baseline methodology for the SI. For this purpose, we explored the existing literature research that involves the SI methods in requirements elicitation. [Principle Ideas/Results] Furthermore, we identify and capture seventeen research methodologies for SI, eight key stakeholders interaction methods, and ten stakeholders assessment methods in requirement elicitation. To further enhance the stakeholder identification process, we additionally identify pivotal information such as different potential stakeholder categories, stakeholder assessments methods, and stakeholder interaction methods. Also, based on the proposed SLR, we find out the existing gaps and new opportunities for SI methods in the requirement elicitation. [Contribution] These SI methodologies help requirements engineers and practitioners identify key stakeholders and efficiently improve the requirements quality. Moreover, this research study helps identify the effective practices used for the traditional and CrowdRE SI, recover consequences that can affect the effectiveness of SI, and recommend advisable SI practices to be employed in the future. This research study would help the software researchers and developers efficiently and accurately identify correct and concerned stakeholders to improve end-user satisfaction instead of considering it a self-evident task.