RE-SWOT: From User Feedback to Requirements via Competitor Analysis

Abstract

App store reviews are a rich source for analysts to elicit requirements from user feedback, for they describe bugs to be fixed, requested features, and possible improvements. Product development teams need new techniques that help them make real-time decisions based on user feedback. [Question/Problem] Researchers have proposed natural language processing (NLP) techniques for extracting and organizing requirements-relevant knowledge from the reviews for one specific app. However, no attention has been paid to studying whether and how requirements can be identified from competing products. [Principal ideas/results] We propose RE-SWOT, a tool-supported method for eliciting requirements from app store reviews through competitor analysis. RE-SWOT combines NLP algorithms with information visualization techniques. We evaluate the usefulness of RE-SWOT with expert product managers from three mobile app companies. [Contribution] Our preliminary results show that competitor analysis is a promising path for research that has direct impact on the requirements engineering practice in modern app development companies.