Foundations for Transparency Requirements Engineering

[Context & motivation] Transparency is becoming an essential requirement for business information systems. Transparency is advocated to inspire trust,. increase accountability and reduce corruption. However, it may also lead to negative side effects such as information overload, bias and unnecessary pressure on stakeholders. [Question/problem] Despite its distinct characteristics and importance, transparency is still a limitedly explored concept in software engineering and information systems literature, and is often fragmented across adjacent concepts such as privacy, secrecy and regulatory requirements. This limits its representation level and impedes its management. [Principal ideas/results] In this paper, we propose four facets for transparency and illustrate their usefulness in guiding transparency requirements engineering. [Contribution] These facets help clarify the concept of transparency and provide foundations for its management in information systems engineering as a distinct notion. Initiatives like the open data movement add to the timeliness and potential impact of our contribution.