1st International Workshop on Requirements
        Engineering for the Precontract Phase (RE4P²)

                            Axel Kalenborn, Marcus Trapp

                Universität Trier, Wirtschaftsinformatik, 54286 Trier
         Fraunhofer IESE, Fraunhofer-Platz 1, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany
  Axel.Kalenborn@uni-trier.de, Marcus.Trapp@iese.fraunhofer.de


   Before a software project is officially started, there is a stage that has not received
much consideration in the requirements engineering literature: the precontract or bid-
ding stage. Part of a bid is a cost estimate that should be as precise as possible. During
the bidding stage, bidders are not being paid while competing with each other, i.e.,
they have to work under great pressure of time, success and cost. As the costs of
common requirements engineering (RE) methods are often considered to be too high,
these methods are typically not used at this early stage. This workshop aims at dis-
cussing and elaborating new ideas to improve RE in this stage.

   Workshop topics
   This workshop mainly aims at discussing questions motivated in this regard. This
includes but is not limited to the following questions:
     • What are the central requirements engineering problems when preparing a
         bid?
     • How can we handle lacking IT affinity of the decision makers? How can we
         present software projects in a way that is understandable for decision mak-
         ers?
     • How can we use common procedure models to resolve specific challenges of
         requirement analyses during the precontract phase?
     • Can we apply common methods of requirement engineering in the precon-
         tract phase, or are they just to complex and cost intensive??
     • Can we find innovative methods that are able to come to reliable cost esti-
         mate before a detailed requirements analysis is possible?
     • What are the constraints of current tools supporting the bid proposal man-
         agement?
     • How can we minimize the risks to write imprecise and wrong calculated
         proposals?
     • How can we show effects of changes in the complexity of software projects?
     • Can we find best practices in the communication about the requirements with
         our stakeholders?
     • How can we validate the requirements in the dialog with our stakeholders?
     • How can we reduce the time that has to be invested in a valid proposal?
    •   Can we build on common procedure models and the functionality of support-
        ive tools to find an innovative method to support requirement engineering for
        bid proposal management?


   Goals of the workshop
   The goal of this workshop is to discuss the aforementioned and other relevant
questions that help us to understand what is necessary from a requirements engineer-
ing perspective to prepare a solid and reliable proposal, without the time to do a
“complete” requirements analysis. To support the requirements engineers or sales
persons, we want to discuss different ideas and possible solutions on a (tool-based)
RE methodology for the more effective and efficient creation of bid proposals.

   Outline of the paper submission and selection process
   Short Papers (up to 6 pages) from research and practice are welcome. The selection
of papers was based on workshop relevance, academic rigor, innovation, industrial
applicability, and quality of writing. Each submitted paper was reviewed by at least
two Program Committee (PC) members, each of whom is noted for their contributions
to the requirements engineering field. The reviews will be blind.

  List of Program Committee
   • Ralph Bergmann, Universität Trier
   • Eckhard Biehl, ICT Solutions AG Trier
   • Ingo Timm, Universität Trier
   • Karin Fetzer, ICT Solutions AG Trier
   • Lilia Wählert, Hochschule Fresenius Idstein
   • Martin Barth, SiteVertreiber GmbH Kaiserslautern
   • Michael Gillmann, Insiders AG Kaiserslautern
   • Axel Kalenborn, Universität Trier
   • Daniel Kuhn, Universität Trier
   • Marcus Trapp, Fraunhofer IESE Kaiserslautern