Requirements Assessment in Smart City Districts: A Motivation Concept for Citizens

[Context and motivation] Digitalization is increasingly influencing cities as they evolve into Smart Cities. However, involving citizens in order to develop digital solutions that address real needs of users is a challenging task. In the Smart City project “EnStadt:Pfaff”, concepts are to be developed to encourage residents of a city district to participate in the development of a Smart City district by communicating their needs, wishes, and ideas. [Question/problem] In the context of Smart City districts, classic requirements engineering (RE) methods such as interviews can be used, but there is high potential for novel methods, as the residents are concentrated within a very limited physical space and can communicate their needs and wishes through a digital platform as well as through analog communication channels. Our research goal is to investigate such novel methods and their potential for improving Smart City districts with digital solutions. [Principal ideas/results] In this research preview, we describe an initial approach for encouraging a group of citizens (potentially without any software engineering background) to participate in requirements elicitation in the context of Smart Cities. [Contribution] The presented approach consists of nine steps providing guidance for the selection of motivational measures, the reduction of obstacles to participation, and communication of requirements elicitation activities. Furthermore, we present topics for future research.