Context-aware functionalities are functionalities that consider the context to produce a certain system behavior, typically an adaptation or recommendation. As contextual elements such as time, location, weather, user activity, device characteristics, network status, and countless others are becoming increasingly more accessible, the potential for adding context awareness to applications is enormous. Identifying novel, unexpected, and even delightful context-aware functionalities in practice can be challenging, though: What context information is relevant for a given user task? How can contextual elements be combined? What if there is a large number of contextual elements? Context modeling has been described in the literature as an essential aspect in the elicitation of context-aware functionalities; however, reports on the state of the practice are rare. In this study, we conducted a survey with industrial practitioners, mostly experienced professionals from large enterprises, to investigate how context models and context-modeling activities have been used to support the elicitation of context-aware functionalities. The results indicate a gap between research and industry: Context models are rarely used in practice, and context-modeling activities such as analysis of relevance and especially analysis of combinations of contextual elements have been overlooked due to their high complexity, despite practitioners recognizing their importance.

We are now living in the era of digital transformation: Innovative and digital business models are transforming the global business world and society. However, the authors of this paper have perceived barriers that prevent requirements engineers from contributing properly to the development of the software systems that underpin the digital transformation. We also realized that breaking down each of these barriers would contribute to requirements engineering (RE) becoming ubiquitous in certain dimensions: RE everywhere, with everyone, for everything, automated, accepting openness, and cross-domain. In this paper, we analyze each dimension of ubiquity in the scope of the interaction between requirements engineers and end users. In particular, we point out the transformation that is required to break down each barrier, present the perspective of the scientific community and our own practical perspective, and discuss our vision on how to achieve this dimension of ubiquity. Our goal is to raise the interest of the research community in providing approaches to address the barriers and move towards ubiquitous RE.