Incorporating Green IT concepts in undergraduate software requirements engineering course: An experience report

Our planet is facing serious environmental issues due to constant increase in energy consumption, and waste from industry. During the past two decades, the use of information technology (IT) has tremendously increased, causing an increase in IT-related power consumption and resulting in higher carbon emission. On the other hand, the concept of Green IT is gaining momentum in our society after the realization that reducing emission can increase the age of our planet and help in improving the health of its inhabitants. Many organizations are considering this phenomenon a serious issue while planning and managing IT infrastructure. In an undergraduate course of software requirements engineering (SRE) the main objective is to teach students the ability to define the characteristics, properties, or qualities that the software product must possess. The main purpose of this work is to incorporate the concept of Green IT in the SRE course and discuss best practices of Green IT for the various requirements engineering activities. Thus future software requirements engineers should consider these as a vital software product requirement. This paper targets to increase awareness and understanding of the environmental sustainability of IT and to highlight the opportunities for academia to incorporate Green IT concepts in undergraduate courses.