  For a firm in an open source software (OSS) ecosystem, the requirements
engineering (RE) process is rather multifaceted. Apart from its typical RE
process, there is a competing process, external to the firm and inherent to the
firm's ecosystem. When trying to impose an agenda in competition with other
firms, and aiming to align internal product planning with the ecosystem's RE
process, firms need to consider who and how influential the other stakeholders
are, and what their agendas are. The aim of the presented research is to help
firms identify and analyze stakeholders in OSS ecosystems, in terms of their
influence and interactions, to create awareness of their agendas, their
collaborators, and how they invest their resources. To arrive at a solution
artifact, we applied a design science research approach where we base artifact
design on the literature and earlier work. A stakeholder influence analysis
(SIA) method is proposed and demonstrated in terms of applicability and utility
through a case study on the Apache Hadoop OSS ecosystem. SIA uses social
network constructs to measure the stakeholders' influence and interactions and
considers the special characteristics of OSS RE to help firms structure their
stakeholder analysis processes in relation to an OSS ecosystem. SIA adds a
strategic aspect to the stakeholder analysis process by addressing the concepts
of influence and interactions, which are important to consider while acting in
collaborative and meritocratic RE cultures of OSS ecosystems.
