Multi-Stakeholder Distributed Systems (MSDS) are distributed systems in which subsets of the nodes are designed, owned, or operated by distinct stakeholders. New computing paradigms such as service-oriented computing mean that challenges posed by MSDS will be more dominant in the future. These challenges have particular implications for requirements engineering (RE). For example, in MSDS decisions about the system architecture are increasingly shifted from system design to system operation. In this paper we discuss the characteristics of MSDS and present a framework for structuring the MSDS research issues. Using an example we illustrate that existing RE approaches for goal modelling, variability modelling, and negotiation techniques can be used successfully if used in an integrated manner to address the identified challenges.

Peer Reviewed