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The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations focus on key issues for the transformation of our world towards sustainability. We argue for stronger integration of the SDGs into requirements and software engineering and for the creation of methods and tools that support the analysis of potential effects of software systems on sustainability in general and on SDGs in particular. To demonstrate one way of undertaking this integration, we report on how the Sustainability Awareness Framework (SusAF -- a tool developed by the authors of this paper) can be mapped to the SDGs, allowing the identification of potential effects of software systems on sustainability and on the SDGs. This mapping exercise demonstrates that it is possible for requirements engineers working on a specific system to consider that system's impact with respect to SDGs.
Context: It is impossible to imagine our everyday and professional lives without software. Consequently, software products, especially socio-technical systems, have more or less obvious impacts on almost all areas of our society. For this purpose, a group of scientists worldwide has developed the Sustainability Awareness Framework (SusAF) which examines the impacts on five interrelated dimensions: social, individual, environmental, economic, and technical. According to this framework, we should design software to maintain or improve the Sustainability Impacts. Designing for sustainability is a major challenge that can profoundly change the field of activity – particular for Software Engineers. Objectives: The aim of the thesis work is to analyze the current role of Software Engineers and relate it to Sustainability Impacts of Software Products in order to contribute to this paradigm shift. This should provide a basis for follow-up works. The question in which direction exactly the Software Engineer should develop and how exactly this path can be followed is still owed by the scientific community. Perhaps universities will have to adapt the curriculum in the training of Software Engineers, politics could possibly initiate support programs in the field of sustainability for software companies, or maybe software sustainability certifications could emerge. In any case, Software Engineers must adapt to the times and acquire the necessary knowledge, the skills and the competencies. Results: The results of the dissertation are a better understanding of the needed paradigm shift of Software Engineers and comeplement the SusAF that to better support sustainability design. The extended SusAF is intended for both training and corporate use.