Capabilities and Requirements Engineering: Research Challenges Gonçalo Antunes, Ricardo Vieira and José Borbinha INESC-ID/IST, Lisbon, Portugal {goncalo.antunes, rjcv, jlb}@ist.utl.pt Copyright © 2013 by Gonçalo Antunes, Ricardo Vieira and José Borbinha. Permission granted to INCOSE to publish and use. Abstract. The concept of capability can be used to provide a holistic view of a product or system, while offering new ways of dealing with complexity. Despite being a concept successfully adopted in several areas, there is opportunity for innovative usages in the engineering of systems. Traditionally, system development methods begin with the gathering and analysis of requirements, and as such, the final product is expected to be in line with the needs of the stakeholders. However, many engineering problems are often situated in complex socio-technical contexts, where systems are characterized as being highly contextual and uncertainty is a constant. Moreover, potential solutions might involve the adoption and integration of off-the-shelf solutions into the systems, or even the reutilization of existing solutions in different settings than those for which they were conceived initially, which is not particularly considered in nowadays engineering methods. This work proposes the usage of the concept of capability in requirements engineering, relating it to the concept of requirement. Based on this proposal, research challenges are identified. Introduction A capability can be defined as “the power or ability to do something” 1 . Although simple, it can be a powerful abstraction, as it can be used to provide new valuable views of a product, system, or organization. The concept has been adopted in systems engineering as well as in many specific areas, for instance, in economics and strategic management, software engineering, enterprise architecture, and others. Many organizations invest in systems over the years, as their business faces new needs. Investments might include the acquisition of off-the-shelf systems or the development of systems specifically tailored for the requirements posed by the business. Organizations usually follow four means for meeting their business needs (Anderson and Kaplan, 2004): in-house innovation, cloning, collaboration, and firm purchasing. In-house innovation consists of creating the needed capabilities through internal innovation. Cloning consists of cloning, copying and borrowing internal (i.e., already existing in divisions or units of the company) or external capabilities (i.e., belonging to other companies). Collaboration consists on the formation of alliances or relationships with other firms so that the needed capabilities can be 1 According to the Oxford Dictionaries, http://oxforddictionaries.com/ 590