StakeCloud: Stakeholder Requirements Communication in the Cloud

Abstract

Effective requirements communication between consumers and providers represents the foundation of any successful service or product. Therefore, numerous methods have been developed and used throughout the recent decades to support provider companies in knowing their consumers and understanding their needs. However, the existing requirements communication techniques are seriously challenged by the cloud paradigm. Cloud computing has emerged as a successful service delivery model that allows reducing capital costs, while improving service accessibility, exibility and scalability. As a result, researchers and practitioners focused on enhancing the technological capabilities of cloud services, but the topic of gathering consumers' real needs has largely been ignored. Challenges posed by the cloud model such as wide, heterogeneous and geographically distributed audiences, frequent change requests and short times to market can only marginally be supported by conventional requirements communication methods. In this thesis, we first describe the current state of practice with regard to requirements communication in cloud settings. The results of an exploratory study we conducted with 19 cloud service providers show that most companies use ad-hoc methods for gathering consumer requirements, since the existing techniques do not fit the cloud characteristics. Furthermore, we identified what key features a cloud requirements communication method should have to meet providers' needs. Secondly, we present StakeCloud, a novel dedicated cloud requirements communication approach. StakeCloud is the main contribution of the thesis and has three components: a conceptual solution, its practical implementation, and a final evaluation. The conceptual solution has its roots in Galois theory and consists of building fuzzy Galois lattices based on (potential) consumers' advanced search queries collected online on marketplaces. The Galois lattices can be used by cloud providers to analyze market needs and trends, as well as optimum solutions for satisfying the largest populations possible with a minimum set of implemented requirements. Moreover, as proof of concept, we implemented a practical tool that can be used directly by cloud provider representatives, e.g., product managers. Finally, we evaluated to what extent our approach satisfies the main needs identified in the exploratory study. The StakeCloud approach complements the existing plethora of requirements communication techniques in that it is a dedicated method for cloud settings, operates with data that already exist, and enables large-scale consumers' involvement in an unobtrusive fashion.