Requirements Engineering in Latin America: The Case of the WER

Requirements engineering (RE) covers the creation, specification, analysis, and management of requirements for software-intensive systems. The RE research community submits its latest results to the IEEE International RE Conference, 31^st edition; the RESFQ Working Conference, 29^th edition; and the Workshop on Requirements Engineering (WER), 26^th edition; as well as the RE track at the ACM-SAC Conference, 16^th edition. Requirements Engineering, a Springer journal, is on its 28^th volume, and the IFIP working group 2.9 (Software Requirements Engineering), founded in 1993, meets annually to discuss the field’s research directions.

The WER stands on the shoulders of previous Latin American initiatives: the Centro Latinoamericano de Estudios en Informática—CLEI (1979) with the CLEI Conference, the Programa Brasil-Argentina de Informática—PABI (1985), and the Escuela Brasil-Argentina de Informática—EBAI (1986).

Over the course of 26 years, WER has fostered cross-border collaborations between more than 23 combinations of countries, the most frequent being Brazil and Argentina. These collaborations show the broad reach of WER, encouraging cooperation within Latin America and beyond. The accompanying figure depicts the network of countries with WER coauthored papers; thicker lines show more frequent collaborations. WER has been hosted in many countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Uruguay, Portugal, Spain, and Canada, underscoring its international scope.

WER is a unique academic gathering that thrives on integration, interaction, and collaboration. Attendees actively engage in a workshop-style environment, fostering the exchange of ideas. Language diversity is encouraged, with “Portuñol”^a being common and English serving as a backup.

Notably, WER has been a springboard for emerging scholars, as many first-time authors at this academic meeting have gone on to become active members of the international community, serving on editorial boards of journals and program committees of ACM and IEEE conferences. Authors who presented their work at WER have frequently extended or developed new research contributions, subsequently publishing in venues such as IEEE-TSE, RE Journal, IEEE RE Conference, and other IEEE and ACM conferences.

WER authors from Latin America have made notable contributions in the following topics, among others: goal-oriented requirements engineering (GORE),^3,4,5 natural language-based representation,^1,2,6 requirements engineering for safety-critical systems,^7,9 and requirements engineering education.⁸ It is worth noting the impact of the work, with more than 1,000 citations, such as the TROPOS Project³ and the work on the role of non-functional requirements in software engineering.⁴

Being organized by the community itself, and independent of publishers or scientific societies, allows flexibility and lower registration costs for authors and participants. WER has its own open access digital library—WERpapers (http://wer.inf.puc-rio.br/WERpapers/). This has enabled articles to be freely accessible since the first edition. The support of PUC-Rio, indexing on DBLP, and Google’s embedded search feature all enhance the accessibility of WER’s contributions. Papers may be written in three languages: Portuguese, Spanish, or English.

Latin American RE authors who first published at the WER include Carina Alves (BR), Leandro Antonelli (AR), Fernanda Alencar (BR), Karin Breitman (BR), Carlos Cares (CL), Juan Pablo Carvallo (EC), Luiz Cysneiros (BR/CA), Maria Lencastre (BR), Gladys Kaplan (AR), João Pimentel (BR), Roxana Portugal (PE), Marcela Ridao (AR), Carla Silva (BR), and Elizabeth Suescun (CO). Several well-known researchers have been WER keynote speakers, including Joseph Goguen, John Mylopoulos, Daniel Berry, Eric Yu, Annie Antón, and Didar Zowghi.

WER’s success is rooted in effective organization, quality research contributions, diversity,^b international collaborations, and a dedicated community. These factors have been pivotal in shaping WER over the years. Understanding these drivers of success guides our future planning and strategic decisions. However, we have faced several challenges, such as being an independent event, funding constraints, and having the event properly indexed. This has affected WER metrics, which makes it more difficult for newcomers to find the financial means to attend. However, these obstacles demand resilience—the recent financial support to buy DOI identifiers for each paper is just one example.

WER understands that researchers are driven by career development opportunities and will continue working to improve participation and foster collaboration. During the pandemic WER did not stop, and participation increased. Post-pandemic, we are now challenged with finding financial support to cover travel expenses; as such, local participation is key. We believe that some of these lessons may help new research communities to establish similar initiatives, promoting knowledge exchange and research growth on a broader scale.

The future of WER is promising. As we reflect on the workshop’s history, lessons learned, and collaborative spirit, several exciting prospects lie ahead:

• Recognition. WER’s contributions to the field of requirements engineering are gaining global recognition. Its inclusion in this special section of Communications signifies a broader reach, fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange with a larger community.

• Sustained Collaboration. WER has built a strong collaborative network, both within Latin America and across the globe. This network is likely to grow stronger, enabling further cross-border research partnerships and knowledge sharing.

• Innovation. The workshop will continue to be a platform for innovative research, addressing emerging trends and challenges in requirements engineering. It will play a role in advancing the state of the art in the field.

• Education. WER has been a nurturing ground for talents in the Latin American region. It will continue to support and mentor upcoming researchers, fostering the next generation of experts in the field.

• Replication. The successful model of WER may be a blueprint for launching similar initiatives in other contexts.

WER will remain a beacon of collaborative research, nurturing talents, and contributing to the advancement of requirements engineering. The journey is just beginning, with the best yet to come!