Eliciting and modeling emotional requirements: a systematic mapping review

Area of Science:

• Software Engineering
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Requirements Engineering

Background:

• User emotions significantly influence technology adoption and acceptance.
• Incorporating emotional requirements (ER) can uncover hidden needs and prevent later-stage resource waste.
• Eliciting and modeling ER in software engineering remains an active research challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and analyze practices for eliciting and modeling emotional requirements (ER) in software engineering.
• To investigate techniques, evaluation methods, limitations, and application domains for ER elicitation.
• To examine modeling languages, analyses, limitations, and domains for ER.

Main Methods:

• A systematic mapping review of studies on emotional requirements engineering.
• Inclusion of primary studies published between 1993 and 2023.
• Identification and analysis of 46 relevant primary studies.

Main Results:

• 34 studies focused on ER elicitation, 5 on modeling, and 7 on both.
• Illustrative case studies were the primary evaluation method for elicitation techniques.
• Key limitations include time consumption and significant human involvement; dominant domains are healthcare, well-being, and game development.

Conclusions:

• The review provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of ER research in software engineering.
• Findings highlight key techniques, evaluations, limitations, and application areas.
• Future research should address managing conflicting ER, evaluating ER impact, and integrating ER with other requirements.