Requirements Engineering in the Planning Phase of a Software Ecosystem

[Motivation] Companies are building software ecosystems to gain competitive advantage by developing digital services together for customers. The planning phase of the software ecosystem can, however, be challenging. [Question] The goal of this study was to analyze what the role of requirements engineering (RE) was in the planning phase of a small-sized software ecosystem. The case study was conducted by interviewing representatives of all six actors of the ecosystem and analyzing material from the 12 planning workshops. [Results] The paper describes the conceptualization process of digital services the actors used during the planning phase. This process contained a flow of tasks from a vision and objectives of the software ecosystem to a go/no-go decision on the development of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). One key characteristic of the conceptualization process was to have traceability from the prioritized functionalities of the MVP to a value proposition, target customer groups and customer paths of digital services and further to the vision and objectives of the software ecosystem. [Contribution] The paper provides knowledge on how actors can start building a software ecosystem together from a business perspective. In addition, it addresses the importance of RE to link the business view to the development of the MVP of digital services in the software ecosystem.