Human Values in Software: A New Paradigm for Requirements Engineering?

Requirements engineering (RE) has generally done a good job of helping to define software systems with the intended functionality and cost and that is safe, secure and reliable. However, there is a broader set of human values - such as transparency, integrity, diversity, compassion, social justice - that are largely ignored when we develop software systems. In this talk, I will argue that RE methods should place more emphasis on these human values so we do a better job of building software that aligns with our individual, corporate or societal values. Furthermore, drawing on recent evidence from case studies in industry, I will argue that dealing with human values in software systems is not just of interest to a small group of organisations; rather, all software projects should think about human values, build them in where appropriate, test for them, and use them to drive design decisions. When they are not dealt with in this way, there can be severe social and economic consequences.