Personal recommendations in requirements engineering : the OpenReq approach

[Context & motivation] Requirements Engineering (RE) is considered as one of the most critical phases in software development but still many challenges remain open. [Problem] There is a growing trend of applying recommender systems to solve open RE challenges like requirements and stakeholder discovery; however, the existent proposals focus on specific RE tasks and do not give a general coverage for the RE process. [Principal ideas/results] In this research preview, we present the OpenReq approach to the development of intelligent recommendation and decision technologies that support different phases of RE in software projects. Specifically, we present the OpenReq part for personal recommendations for stakeholders. [Contribution] OpenReq aim is to improve and speed up RE processes, especially in large and distributed systemsPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Adaptive development and maintenance of user-centric software systems

A software system cannot be developed without considering the various facets of its environment. Stakeholders – including the users that play a central role – have their needs, expectations, and perceptions of a system. Organisational and technical aspects of the environment are constantly changing. The ability to adapt a software system and its requirements to its environment throughout its full lifecycle is of paramount importance in a constantly changing environment. The continuous involvement of users is as important as the constant evaluation of the system and the observation of evolving environments. We present a methodology for adaptive software systems development and maintenance. We draw upon a diverse range of accepted methods including participatory design, software architecture, and evolutionary design. Our focus is on user-centred software systems

Eliciting User Requirements Using Appreciative Inquiry

Many software development projects fail because they do not meet the needs of users, are over-budget, and abandoned. To address this problem, the user requirements elicitation process was modified based on principles of Appreciative Inquiry. Appreciative Inquiry, commonly used in organizational development, aims to build organizations, processes, or systems based on success stories using a hopeful vision for an ideal future. Spanning five studies, Appreciative Inquiry was evaluated for its effectiveness with eliciting user requirements. In the first two cases, it was compared with traditional approaches with end-users and proxy-users. The third study was a quasi-experiment comparing the use of Appreciative Inquiry in different phases of in the software development cycle. The final two case studies combined all lessons learned using Appreciative Inquiry, with multiple case studies to gain additional understanding for the requirements gathered during various project phases. Each study evaluated the requirements gathered, developer and user attitudes, and the Appreciative Inquiry process itself. Requirements were evaluated for the quantity and their type regardless of whether they were implemented or not. Attitudes were evaluated for process feedback, as well as requirements and project commitment. The Appreciative Inquiry process was evaluated with differing groups, projects, and project phases to determine how and when it is best applied. Potentially interceding factors were also evaluated including: team effectiveness, emotional intelligence, perceived stress, the experience of the facilitator, and the development project type itself. Appreciative Inquiry produced positive results for the participants, the requirements obtained, and the general requirements eliciting-process. Appreciative Inquiry demonstrated benefits to the requirements gathered by increasing the number of unique requirements as well as identifying more quality-based (non-functional) and forward-looking requirements. It worked well with defined projects, when there was time for participants to reflect on the thought-provoking questions, structured questions and extra time to facilitate the extraction and translation of requirements, and a knowledgeable interviewer. The participants (end-users and developers) expressed improved vision and confidence. End-users participated consistently with immediate buy-in and enthusiasm, especially those users who were technically-inhibited. Development teams expressed improved confidence, and improved user communication and understanding

A Comparative Study on Model-Driven Requirements Engineering for Software Product Lines

[EN] Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) and Software Product Lines (SPL) are two software development paradigms that emphasize reusing. The former reuse domain knowledge is represented as models and model transformations for product development, and the latter reuse domain knowledge is represented as core assets to produce a family of products in a given domain. The adequate combination of both paradigms can bring together important advantages to the software development community. However, how to manage requirements during a model-driven product line development remains an open challenge. In particular, the Requirements Engineering (RE) activity must deal with specific properties such as variability and commonality for a whole family of products. This paper presents a comparative study of eleven approaches that perform a MDE strategy in the RE activity for SPL, with the aim of identify ing current practices and research gaps. In summary, most of the approaches are focused on the Domain Engineering phase of the SPL development, giving less attention to the Application Engineering phase. Moreover there is a lack of coverage of the Scoping activity, which defines the SPL boundaries. Several approaches apply some model transformations to obtain architectural and application requirements artifacts. Regarding the tool support for requirements specification and management, we found that most of the approaches use only academic prototypes. Regarding the validation of the approaches, the use of Case Studies as a proof of concept was the most commonly used method; however, there is a lack of well-defined case studies and empirical studies to improve the proposals.This research is part of the MULTIPLE project (with ref. TIN2009-13838).Blanes Domínguez, D.; Insfrán Pelozo, CE. (2012). A Comparative Study on Model-Driven Requirements Engineering for Software Product Lines. Revista de Sistemas e Computação. 2(1):3-13. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/43841S3132

How do software architects consider non-functional requirements: an exploratory study

© 2012 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes,creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Dealing with non-functional requirements (NFRs) has posed a challenge onto software engineers for many years. Over the years, many methods and techniques have been proposed to improve their elicitation, documentation, and validation. Knowing more about the state of the practice on these topics may benefit both practitioners' and researchers' daily work. A few empirical studies have been conducted in the past, but none under the perspective of software architects, in spite of the great influence that NFRs have on daily architects' practices. This paper presents some of the findings of an empirical study based on 13 interviews with software architects. It addresses questions such as: who decides the NFRs, what types of NFRs matter to architects, how are NFRs documented, and how are NFRs validated. The results are contextualized with existing previous work.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Identifying and Modelling Complex Workflow Requirements in Web Applications

Workflow plays a major role in nowadays business and therefore its requirement elicitation must be accurate and clear for achieving the solution closest to business’s needs. Due to Web applications popularity, the Web is becoming the standard platform for implementing business workflows. In this context, Web applications and their workflows must be adapted to market demands in such a way that time and effort are minimize. As they get more popular, they must give support to different functional requirements but also they contain tangled and scattered behaviour. In this work we present a model-driven approach for modelling workflows using a Domain Specific Language for Web application requirement called WebSpec. We present an extension to WebSpec based on Pattern Specifications for modelling crosscutting workflow requirements identifying tangled and scattered behaviour and reducing inconsistencies early in the cycle

An Automated Approach To Elicit And Validate Security Requirements Of Mobile Application

Mobile phone usage has continued to rise,and it is becoming more convenient for users to use mobile applications for booking hotels,conducting online transaction and online payment.In this case,secured applications are required to increase the confidence among mobile users.In order to achieve correct secure application,a correct security requirements needs to be elicited and defined.Additionally,it is also crucial for security requirements of mobile apps to fulfill basic quality attributes such as correct,consistent and complete (3Cs).However,few problems are found in eliciting security requirements for mobile apps.Firstly, most requirements engineers (RE) are identified to have less knowledge and understanding of security requirements attributes,leading to the failure of implementing the 3Cs of security requirements.Secondly,most of the elicitation and the validation of security requirements are conducted at the later stage of the development and leads to poor quality security requirements implementation which might resulted to project failure.Motivated from these problems,the objectives of this thesis are three-folds; 1) To analyze the security requirements for mobile apps, 2) To propose an approach to elicit and end-to-end validation of security requirement,and 3)To evaluate the efficacy in term of correctness and performance as well as usability of the approach.This thesis proposes a new automated approach to assist the elicitation and validation of security requirements.Here an automated tool support called MobiMEReq is also developed.For this, we have adopted Test Driven Development (TDD) methodology with semi-formalized models:i) Essential Use Cases (EUCs) and ii) Essential User Interface (EUI).We then divided our approach into two parts:1)Elicitation and 2)End-to-end validation security requirements.Further,we have developed pattern libraries to assist on the correct elicitation and validation.They are mobile Security attributes pattern library and mobile security pattern library.Then,we have constructed a new algorithm using fuzzy logic to assist on the prioritization of the test for better performance of validation.Finally,a comprehensive evaluation of the approach,comprising experiments of correctness test and usability test were conducted.Here,we have also evaluated the feedback from the industry experts especially on the usability of the automated approach and tool support.In summary,the findings of the evaluations show that our approach is able to contribute to the body of knowledge of mobile security requirements engineering especially in enhancing the performance and correctness level of security attribute elicitation and its usability for end-to-end elicitation and validation.It is found that the approach able to enhance the correctness level of the elicited security attribute compared to the manual approach,and produce correct generation of test.Then,the results of the usability test by the novice and experts show that the approach is useful in eliciting and validating security requirements at the early stage of application development and is able to ease the elicitation and validation process of security requirements of mobile apps

REQUIREMENT ENGINEERING APLIKASI PENGELOLAAN PROSES PERTANIAN PADA KOMUNITAS TANI MENGGUNAKAN LOUCOPOULOS DAN KARAKOSTAS ITERATIVE MODEL

Pada salah satu kelompok tani di Kopeng Kab. Magelang, komoditas utamanya adalah sayur organik dan telah mendistribusikan komoditas sayur organik ke berbagai daerah di Indonesia bahkan mengeksor ke luar negeri. Namun, dalam menjalankan aktivitas pertanian, kelompok tani tersebut belum memiliki fasilitas untuk memantau penggunaan lahan pertanian, jenis komoditas yang ditanam dan jumlah komoditas yang ditanam. Hal tersebut berpengaruh pada jumlah panen komoditas sehingga berpengaruh pada harga komoditas. Untuk mengakomodir permasalahan monitoring lahan dan komunikasi dari kelompok tani, dilakukanlah pembangunan aplikasi TaniPintar yang dapat memfasilitasi petani untuk memantau dan mengelola informasi terkait penggunaan lahan, jenis serta jumlah komoditas yang sedang ditanam. Pembangunan aplikasi Tanipintar akan berbasis mobile yang dapat memfasilitasi petani untuk memantau dan mengelola informasi terkait penggunaan lahan, jenis serta jumlah komoditas yang sedang ditanam. Salah satu tahapan krusial dalam pembangunan suatu perangkat lunak adalah tahap requirement engineering yang merupakan fase awal dari Software Development Lyfe Cycle, pada penelitan requirement engineering ini menggunakan metode Iteratif yang dikembangkan oleh Loucopulus dan Karakostas. Model yang menggambarkan proses Requirement Engineering bersifat iteratif dan siklis. Model ini menunjukkan interaksi antara elisitasi, spesifikasi, validasi, pengguna dan domain masalah. Adapun tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah dihasilkannya spesifikasi kebutuhan serta high fidelity prototype aplikasi TaniPintar yang menjadi dasar pembangunan aplikasi TaniPintar. Pada penelitian ini menghasilkan prototype aplikasi TaniPintar dari requirement engineering yang telah dilakukan dengan 3 tahapan yaitu Elicitation, Spesification dan Validation sesuai dengan Loucopoulos dan Karakostas Iterative Model

Interactive product catalogue with user preference tracking

In the context of m-commerce, small screen size poses serious difficulty for users to browse effectively through a product catalogue, given the limited number of products that may be presented on-screen. Despite the availability of search engines, filters and recommender systems to aid users, these techniques focus on a narrow segment of product offering. The users are thus denied the opportunity to do a more expansive exploration of the products available. This paper describes a novel approach to overcome the constraints of small screen size. Through integration of a product catalogue with a recommender system, an adaptive system has been created that guides users through the process of product browsing. An original technique has been developed to cluster similar positive examples together to identify areas of interest of a user. The performance of this technique has been evaluated and the results proved to be promising

How Ontologies Can Help in an eMarketplace

Recently, ontologies have been developed in various business domains with the recent maturing of the Semantic Web technologies. However, ontology-related researches have largely focused on the facilitation of successful matchmaking but not much on traders’ requirement elicitation and potential negotiations in e-marketplaces. Because ontology provides the key knowledge about the inter-relationships among the issues and alternatives of the traders’ requirements, we show how to elicit trade requirements, alternatives, and tradeoff from an agreed ontology. This facilitates the whole business process of the e-marketplace, from matchmaking, recommendation, to negotiation. We further propose a novel methodology for the elicitation of dependencies among traders’ requirements for the formulation of an effective decision plan. As a result, traders can have a better cognition of their requirements and the overall operations of the e-marketplace can be streamlined