ORCID
Abstract
Previous studies in software engineering have reported the importance of considering gender aspects in various software engineering activities, including requirements engineering, however, to the best of our knowledge, no work has investigated the impact of gender sensitisation on eliciting gender inclusive software requirements. The objective of this study was to understand the impact of gender sensitisation on software requirements elicitation. We conducted a controlled experiment using 40 undergraduate students from three different computing programs at the University of Dar es Salaam. The 40 participants were divided into 9 groups with both males and females. The participants were asked to elicit the requirements of a campus navigation mobile app before and after a gender sensitization session. The results of the experiment show that gender sensitization helps to uncover new and important software requirements; unconscious biases can cause software teams to miss important requirements, regardless of the gender composition of the team; and gender sensitisation before embarking on requirements elicitation can lead to more inclusive software systems. The experiment confirms the importance of training for both software engineering students and professionals on gender considerations in requirements elicitation and, by extension, other software engineering activities.
Recommended Citation
Kateule, R., Maro, S., & Binamungu, L. P. (2026). The Impact of Gender Sensitization on Requirements Elicitation: A Controlled Experiment. Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET), 45(1), 152-162. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.65085/2619-8789.1136
Publisher Name
University of Dar es Salaam
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Computer-Aided Engineering and Design Commons, Databases and Information Systems Commons, Risk Analysis Commons, Systems and Communications Commons