Lim, S; Bentley, P; Ishikawa, F; (2020) Reaching the Unreachable: A Method for Early Stage Software Startups to Reach Inaccessible Stakeholders within Large Corporations. In: Proceedings of the 28th IEEE Requirements Engineering Conference (RE'20). IEEE: Zurich, Switzerland. (In press).

Preview

Text reaching_the_unreachable.pdf - Published Version Download (435kB) | Preview

Abstract

Bridging the gap in software development from idea to need remains a difficult task for startups, especially when users are unreachable within the black boxes of large corporations. The lack of customer collaboration results in the failure of requirements elicitation and subsequently the failure of software products. In this work, we describe a simple but effective method to enable startups to reach relevant hidden stakeholders within large corporations and elicit requirements from them. AdvisorNet leverages professional networks and social media to find senior domain experts. These carefully selected advisors bridge the gap from the outside world to the hidden corporate structure and social networks in the target corporation and enable highly successful elicitation from stakeholders. We demonstrate AdvisorNet with a real-world case study in which a London-based startup successfully connected with multiple advisors who then introduced previously unreachable users for requirements elicitation and decision-makers to achieve their goal of trialing their product within the large corporations. Finally, we provide suggestions for future research to formalize the method further and enable it to become rigorous and repeatable.

Download activity - last month

Export as CSVXMLJSON

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as XMLCSVJSON

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as CSVXMLJSON

Archive Staff Only

View Item