Understanding the Impact of Artefact-Based RE -- Design of a Replication Study

Artefact-based requirements engineering (RE) describes the idea of establishing a company-wide RE reference model by putting the focus on the RE artefacts and their dependencies rather than dictating a strict process with interconnected methods. Previously conducted case studies already strengthen our confidence in certain advantages and shortcomings of the paradigm. Still, our case studies by now remain isolated focussing on particular socio-economic contexts and, thus, the findings can hardly be generalised. Therefore, we need further replications. In this paper, we contribute the design of a replication case study to better understand the impact of artefact-based requirements engineering and, as a long term goal, strengthen an initial theory of expectation we could already infer from results and experiences we made in previous case studies. The replications shall lead to a reliable empirical base due to comparability among the studies. This allows for a (still restricted) generalisability of conclusions on artefact-based requirements engineering.