Integrating sustainability concerns into agile user stories : a conceptual framework for requirements engineering

Abstract

This thesis investigated how sustainability concerns could be integrated into agile user stories in order to make sustainability more visible during everyday development activities. Agile software development is widely used for its flexibility and iterative delivery, but sustainability requirements are often difficult to represent and are therefore frequently treated as secondary non-functional concerns. To address this problem, a literature review was conducted on agile software development, user stories, non-functional requirements, and sustainability-aware software engineering. Based on the review and subsequent problem analysis, a Sustainability-Integrated User Story (SIUS) Framework was designed. The framework extends traditional user stories by incorporating sustainability objectives, sustainability-oriented acceptance criteria, sustainability tags, and sustainability review questions during sprint activities. The framework was demonstrated through practical examples in streaming and e-commerce scenarios. The conceptual analysis suggested that the SIUS Framework may improve the visibility of environmental and social sustainability concerns without reducing the lightweight nature of agile practices. It may also strengthen traceability between sustainability goals, user stories, and sprint-level activities. The SIUS Framework conceptually demonstrates that sustainability may be embedded into user stories in a structured yet lightweight way, potentially supporting more sustainable software development decisions. The thesis contributes a conceptual and adaptable approach for integrating sustainability into agile requirements engineering.