Assessing a requirements evolution approach: Empirical studies in the air traffic management domain

Requirements evolution is still a challenging problem in engineering practices. In this paper, we report the results of the empirical evaluation of a novel approach for modeling and reasoning on evolving requirements. We evaluated the effectiveness of the approach in modeling requirements evolution by means of a series of empirical studies in the air traffic management (ATM) domain. As we also wanted to assess whether the knowledge of the method and/or the application domain influences the effectiveness of the approach, the studies involved researchers, master students and domain experts with different level of knowledge of the approach and of the ATM domain. The participants have applied the approach to a real evolutionary scenario which focuses on the introduction of a new queue management tool, the Arrival MANager (AMAN) and a new network for information sharing (SWIM) connecting the main ATM actors. The results from the studies show that the modeling approach is effective in capturing requirements evolution. In addition, domain knowledge and method knowledge do not have an observable effect on the effectiveness of the approach. Furthermore, the evaluation provided us useful insights on how to improve the modeling approach.     

An approach to developing domain requirements as a core asset based on commonality and variability analysis in a product line

The methodologies of product line engineering emphasize proactive reuse to construct high-quality products more quickly that are less costly. Requirements engineering for software product families differs significantly from requirements engineering for single software products. The requirements for a product line are written for the group of systems as a whole, with requirements for individual systems specified by a delta or an increment to the generic set. Therefore, it is necessary to identify and explicitly denote the regions of commonality and points of variation at the requirements level. In this paper, we suggest a method of producing requirements that will be a core asset in the product line. We describe a process for developing domain requirements where commonality and variability in a domain are explicitly considered. A CASE environment, named DREAM, for managing commonality and variability analysis of domain requirements is also described. We also describe a case study for an e-travel system domain where we found that our approach to developing domain requirements based on commonality and variability analysis helped to produce domain requirements as a core asset for product lines.     

基于CMM2级需求管理过程框架的研究与实现

需求管理是在软件工程过程中对变化的需求进行管理的过程。通过分析当前软件需求管理中存在的主要问题，并在研究CMM2级对需求管理要求的基础上，提出了基于CMM2级的需求管理过程框架，并给出了基于该框架的一个实现方案，最后讨论了实现方案中一些关键技术。     

Handling obstacles in goal-oriented requirements engineering

Requirements engineering is concerned with the elicitation of high-level goals to be achieved by the envisioned system, the refinement of such goals and their operationalization into specifications of services and constraints and the assignment of responsibilities for the resulting requirements to agents such as humans, devices and software. Requirements engineering processes often result in goals, requirements, and assumptions about agent behavior that are too ideal; some of them are likely not to be satisfied from time to time in the running system due to unexpected agent behavior. The lack of anticipation of exceptional behaviors results in unrealistic, unachievable, and/or incomplete requirements. As a consequence, the software developed from those requirements will not be robust enough and will inevitably result in poor performance or failures, sometimes with critical consequences on the environment. This paper presents formal techniques for reasoning about obstacles to the satisfaction of goals, requirements, and assumptions elaborated in the requirements engineering process. The techniques are based on a temporal logic formalization of goals and domain properties; they are integrated into an existing method for goal-oriented requirements elaboration with the aim of deriving more realistic, complete, and robust requirements specifications. A key principle is to handle exceptions at requirements engineering time and at the goal level, so that more freedom is left for resolving them in a satisfactory way. The various techniques proposed are illustrated and assessed in the context of a real safety-critical system     

The role of domain knowledge in requirements elicitation via interviews: an exploratory study

Requirements elicitation is the first activity in the requirements engineering process. It includes learning, surfacing, and discovering the requirements of the stakeholders of the developed system. Various elicitation techniques exist to help analysts elicit the requirements from the different stakeholders; the most commonly used technique is the interview. Analysts may have domain knowledge prior to the elicitation process. Such knowledge is commonly assumed to have positive effects on requirements engineering processes, in that it fosters communication, and a mutual understanding of the needs. However, to a minor extent, some negative effects have also been reported. This paper presents an empirical study in which the perceived and actual effects of prior domain knowledge on requirements elicitation via interviews were examined. The results indicate that domain knowledge affects elicitation via interview in two main aspects: communication with the customers and understanding their needs. The findings provide insights as to both the positive and negative effects of domain knowledge on requirements elicitation via interview, as perceived by participants with and without domain knowledge, and show the existence of an actual effect on the course of the interviews. Furthermore, these insights can be utilized in practice to support analysts in the elicitation process and to form requirements analysis teams. They highlight the different contributions that can be provided by analysts with different levels of domain knowledge in requirements analysis teams and the synergy that can be gained by forming heterogeneous teams of analysts.     

Where do requirements come from?

What should a product do? What qualities should it have? How do we determine these requirements for new generations of products? Requirements engineering is an activity in which a wide variety of stakeholders work together to answer these questions. The answers do not arrive by themselves, there is a need to-ask, observe, discover, and increasingly create requirements. If we want to build competitive and imaginative products that avoid re-implementing the obvious, we must make creativity part of the requirements process. Indeed, the importance of creative thinking is expected to increase over the next decade. Unfortunately, most RE research and practice does not recognize this important trend. We highlight some important information sources for creativity and innovation and present some useful examples of creative RE as references to guide and inspire readers     

A framework for understanding creativity in requirements engineering

Creativity is important in the discovery and analysis of user and business requirements to achieve innovative uses of information and communication technologies. This paper builds a theoretical framework for understanding creativity in requirements engineering. The framework provides a systematic means of understanding creativity in requirements engineering and comprises five elements (product, process, domain, people and socio-organisational context). The framework provides researchers with a sound basis for exploring how the five elements of creativity can be incorporated within RE methods and techniques to support creative requirements engineering. It provides practitioners with a systematic means of creating environments that nurture and develop creative people, cognitive and collaborative processes and products.     

A methodology for eliciting,modelling, and evaluating expert knowledge for an adaptive work-integrated learning system

We present a methodology for constructing and evaluating models for adaptive informal technology-enhanced workplace learning. It is designed for knowledge-intensive work domains which are not pre structured according to a fixed curriculum. We extend research on Competence-based Knowledge Space Theory which has been mainly applied in educational settings. Our approach employs systematic knowledge elicitation and practically feasible evaluation techniques performed as part of the modelling process for iterative refinement of the models. A case study was performed in the Requirements Engineering domain to apply and test the developed methodology. We discuss lessons learned and several implications for knowledge engineering for adaptive workplace learning.     

A methodology for the selection of requirements engineering techniques

The complexity of software projects as well as the multidisciplinary nature of requirements engineering (RE) requires developers to carefully select RE techniques and practices during software development. Nevertheless, the selection of RE techniques is usually based on personal preference or existing company practice rather than on characteristics of the project at hand. Furthermore, there is a lack of guidance on which techniques are suitable for a certain project context. So far, only a limited amount of research has been done regarding the selection of RE techniques based on the attributes of the project under development. The few approaches that currently exist for the selection of RE techniques provide only little guidance for the actual selection process. We believe that the evaluation of RE techniques in the context of an application domain and a specific project is of great importance. This paper describes a Methodology for Requirements Engineering Techniques Selection (MRETS) as an approach that helps requirements engineers select suitable RE techniques for the project at hand. The MRETS has three aspects: Firstly, it aids requirements engineers in establishing a link between the attributes of the project and the attributes of RE techniques. Secondly, based on the evaluation schema proposed in our research, MRETS provides an opportunity to analyze RE techniques in detail using clustering. Thirdly, the objective function used in our approach provides an effective decision support mechanism for the selection of RE techniques. This paper makes contributions to RE techniques analysis, the application of RE techniques in practice, RE research, and software engineering in general. The application of the proposed methodology to an industrial project provides preliminary information on the effectiveness of MRETS for the selection of RE techniques.     

智能需求获取与建模研究综述

需求获取和建模是指从需求文本或记录中获取显式和隐式的需求,并通过表格化、图形化、形式化等方法构建相应模型的过程,是软件开发过程中极为关键的一步,为后续系统设计与实现铺平道路,提高软件开发效率和质量,提升软件系统稳定性和可行性.研究者们在需求获取与建模方面获得了一系列研究成果,根据其关注阶段不同,可以将它们分为需求知识提取、需求知识分类和需求模型构建3个方面.鉴于传统方法在知识获取、模型构建的准确性和效率方面一直存在弊端,近年来,越来越多的研究者们将具有广泛应用性的人工智能技术与需求获取、需求分类、需求建模方法相结合,提出了一系列智能需求获取与建模的方法和技术,从而弥补了传统方法的不足.着重从智能需求获取与建模角度着手,对近年来的研究进展进行梳理和总结.主要内容包括:1)统计并分析人工智能技术在需求知识提取、需求知识分类和需求模型构建中使用的方法和技术;2)总结了智能需求获取与建模过程中采用的验证方法和评估方法;3)从科学问题和技术难点2个方面归纳得出目前智能需求获取与建模的关键问题,围绕集成式和动态化模型构建、与其他软件工程活动关联、智能需求知识分类的粒度、数据集构建、评估指标构建和工具支持6部分,阐述了上述问题的可能解决思路和未来发展趋势.     

Quality requirements engineering for systems and software architecting: methods, approaches, and tools

Requirements engineering and software architecture are quite mature software engineering sub-disciplines, which often seem to be disconnected for many reasons and it is difficult to perceive the impact of functional and non-functional requirements on architecture and to establish appropriate trace links for traceability purposes. In other cases, the estimation of how non-functional requirements, as the quality properties a system should pose, is not perceived useful enough to produce high-quality software. Therefore, in this special issue, we want to highlight the importance and the role of quality requirements for architecting and building complex software systems that in many cases require multidisciplinary engineering techniques, which increases the complexity of the software development process.     

A systematic review of security requirements engineering

One of the most important aspects in the achievement of secure software systems in the software development process is what is known as Security Requirements Engineering. However, very few reviews focus on this theme in a systematic, thorough and unbiased manner, that is, none of them perform a systematic review of security requirements engineering, and there is not, therefore, a sufficiently good context in which to operate. In this paper we carry out a systematic review of the existing literature concerning security requirements engineering in order to summarize the evidence regarding this issue and to provide a framework/background in which to appropriately position new research activities.     

Process-Based Software Engineering: Building the Infrastructures

A recent trend in software engineering is the shift from a focus on laboratory-oriented software engineering to a more industry-oriented view of software engineering processes. This complements preceding ideas about software engineering in terms of organization and process-orientation. From the domain coverage point of view, many of the existing software engineering approaches have mainly concentrated on the technical aspects of software development. Important areas of software engineering, such as the technical and organizational infrastructures, have been left untouched. As software systems increase in scales, issues of complexity and professional practices become involved. Software development as an academic or laboratory activity, has to engage with software development as a key industrialized process.This expanded domain of software engineering exposes the limitations of existing methodologies that often address only individual subdomains. There is, therefore, a demand for an overarching approach that provide a basis for theoretical and practical infrastructures capable of accommodating the whole range of modern software engineering practices and requirements. One approach is provided by Process-Based Software Engineering (PBSE); part of the more general trend towards a focus on process.This paper provides a review of process techniques for software engineering and a high-level perspective on PBSE. Typical approaches and techniques for the establishment, assessment, improvement and benchmarking of software engineering process systems are introduced in this paper, and many are developed further in other contributions to this volume.     

Guiding goal modeling using scenarios

Even though goal modeling is an effective approach to requirements engineering, it is known to present a number of difficulties in practice. The paper discusses these difficulties and proposes to couple goal modeling and scenario authoring to overcome them. Whereas existing techniques use scenarios to concretize goals, we use them to discover goals. Our proposal is to define enactable rules which form the basis of a software environment called L'Ecritoire to guide the requirements elicitation process through interleaved goal modeling and scenario authoring. The focus of the paper is on the discovery of goals from scenarios. The discovery process is centered around the notion of a requirement chunk (RC) which is a pair 〈Goal, Scenario〉. The paper presents the notion of RC, the rules to support the discovery of RCs and illustrates the application of the approach within L'Ecritoire using the ATM example. It also evaluates the potential practical benefits expected from the use of the approach     

Requirements engineering within a large-scale security-oriented research project: lessons learned

Requirements engineering has been recognized as a fundamental phase of the software engineering process. Nevertheless, the elicitation and analysis of requirements are often left aside in favor of architecture-driven software development. This tendency, however, can lead to issues that may affect the success of a project. This paper presents our experience gained in the elicitation and analysis of requirements in a large-scale security-oriented European research project, which was originally conceived as an architecture-driven project. In particular, we illustrate the challenges that can be faced in large-scale research projects and consider the applicability of existing best practices and off-the-shelf methodologies with respect to the needs of such projects. We then discuss how those practices and methods can be integrated into the requirements engineering process and possibly improved to address the identified challenges. Finally, we summarize the lessons learned from our experience and the benefits that a proper requirements analysis can bring to a project.     

A case study validation of a knowledge-based approach for the selection of requirements engineering techniques

Requirements engineering (RE) is a critical phase in the software engineering process and plays a vital role in ensuring the overall quality of a software product. Recent research has shown that industry increasingly recognizes the importance of good RE practices and the use of appropriate RE techniques. However, due to the large number of RE techniques, requirements engineers find it challenging to select suitable techniques for a particular project. Unfortunately, technique selection based on personal experience has limitations with regards to the scope, effectiveness and suitability of the RE techniques for the project at hand. In this paper, a Knowledge-based Approach for the Selection of Requirements Engineering Techniques (KASRET) is proposed that helps during RE techniques selection. This approach has three major features. First, a library of requirements techniques was developed which includes detailed knowledge about RE techniques. Second, KASRET integrates advantages of different knowledge representation schemata and reasoning mechanisms. Thus, KASRET provides mechanisms for the management of knowledge about requirements techniques and support for RE process development. Third, as a major decision support mechanism, an objective function evaluates the overall ability and cost of RE techniques, which is helpful for the selection of RE techniques. This paper makes not only a contribution to RE but also to research and application of knowledge management and decision support in process development. A case study using an industrial project shows the support of KASRET for RE techniques selection.

An Empirical Study of the Complex Relationships between Requirements Engineering Processes and Other Processes that Lead to Payoffs in Productivity, Quality, and Risk Management

Requirements engineering is an important component of effective software engineering, yet more research is needed to demonstrate the benefits to development organizations. While the existing literature suggests that effective requirements engineering can lead to improved productivity, quality, and risk management, there is little evidence to support this. We present empirical evidence showing how requirements engineering practice relates to these claims. This evidence was collected over the course of a 30-month case study of a large software development project undergoing requirements process improvement. Our findings add to the scarce evidence on RE payoffs and, more importantly, represent an in-depth explanation of the role of requirements engineering processes in contributing to these benefits. In particular, the results of our case study show that an effective requirements process at the beginning of the project had positive outcomes throughout the project lifecycle, improving the efficacy of other project processes, ultimately leading to improvements in project negotiation, project planning, and managing feature creep, testing, defects, rework, and product quality. Finally, we consider the role collaboration had in producing the effects we observed and the implications of this work to both research and practice.     

Survey and analysis on Security Requirements Engineering

Security Requirements Engineering is a new research area in software engineering, with the realization that security must be analyzed early during the requirements phase. Many researchers are working in this area; however, there is a lack in security requirements treatment. The security requirements are one of the non-functional requirements, which act as constraints on functions of the system. Organizations are depending on information systems for communicating and sharing information. Thus, IT security is becoming central in fulfilling business goals, to guard assets and to create trustworthy systems. To develop systems with adequate security features, it is essential to capture the security requirements. In this paper, we present a view on Security Requirements, issues, types, Security Requirements Engineering (SRE) and methods. We analyzed and compared different methods and found that SQUARE and Security Requirements Engineering Process methods cover most of the important activities of SRE. The developers can adopt these SRE methods and easily identify the security requirements for software systems.