  Civic grassroots have proven their ability to create useful and scalable
software that addresses pressing social needs. Although software engineering
plays a fundamental role in the process of creating civic technology, academic
literature that analyses the software development processes of civic tech
grassroots is scarce. This paper aims to advance the understanding of how civic
grassroots tackle the different activities in their software development
processes. In this study, we followed the formation of two projects in a civic
tech group (Code for Ireland) seeking to understand how their development
processes evolved over time, and how the group carried out their work in
creating new technology. Our preliminary findings show that such groups are
capable of setting up systematic software engineering processes that address
software specification, development, validation, and evolution. While they were
able to deliver software according to self-specified quality standards, the
group has challenges in requirements specification, stakeholder engagement, and
reorienting from development to product delivery. Software engineering methods
and tools can effectively support the future of civic technologies and
potentially improve their management, quality, and durability.
