Which Requirements Artifact Quality Defects are Automatically Detectable? A Case Study

[Context:] The quality of requirements engineeringartifacts, e.g. requirements specifications, is acknowledged tobe an important success factor for projects. Therefore, manycompanies spend significant amounts of money to control thequality of their RE artifacts. To reduce spending and improvethe RE artifact quality, methods were proposed that combinemanual quality control, i.e. reviews, with automated approaches.[Problem:] So far, we have seen various approaches to auto-matically detect certain aspects in RE artifacts. However, westill lack an overview what can and cannot be automaticallydetected. [Approach:] Starting from an industry guideline forRE artifacts, we classify 166 existing rules for RE artifacts alongvarious categories to discuss the share and the characteristics ofthose rules that can be automated. For those rules, that cannotbe automated, we discuss the main reasons. [Contribution:] Weestimate that 53% of the 166 rules can be checked automaticallyeither perfectly or with a good heuristic. Most rules need onlysimple techniques for checking. The main reason why some rulesresist automation is due to imprecise definition. [Impact:] Bygiving first estimates and analyses of automatically detectable andnot automatically detectable rule violations, we aim to provide anoverview of the potential of automated methods in requirementsquality control

A Novel Approach to Ontology Management

The term ontology is defined as the explicit specification of a conceptualization. While much of the prior research has focused on technical aspects of ontology management, little attention has been paid to the investigation of issues that limit the widespread use of ontologies and the evaluation of the effectiveness of ontologies in improving task performance. This dissertation addresses this void through the development of approaches to ontology creation, refinement, and evaluation. This study follows a multi-paper model focusing on ontology creation, refinement, and its evaluation. The first study develops and evaluates a method for ontology creation using knowledge available on the Web. The second study develops a methodology for ontology refinement through pruning and empirically evaluates the effectiveness of this method. The third study investigates the impact of an ontology in use case modeling, which is a complex, knowledge intensive organizational task in the context of IS development. The three studies follow the design science research approach, and each builds and evaluates IT artifacts. These studies contribute to knowledge by developing solutions to three important issues in the effective development and use of ontologies

Model and use case driven software development process.

У докторској дисертацији је разматран проблем интеграције случајева коришћења у моделом вођени развој софтвера и предложена оригиналана Silab- UCMDDM метода. Предложена Silab-UCMDDM метода истиче важност и неопходност коришћења 3 међусобно конзистентна и комплементарна модела: а) моделa случајева коришћења, б) доменскoг моделa и ц) моделa прелаза стања. У дисертацији је идентификована директна веза између ова три модела која се пре свега огледа у томе да спецификација акција случаја коришћења треба да се ослања на доменски модел, док се предуслови и постуслови за извршење случајева коришћења дефинишу у моделу прелаза стања. Silab-UCMDM метода користи две стратегије у развоју софтвера: а) стратегију засновану на случајевима коришћења (Use Case Driven Development) и б) стратегију засновану на MDD (Model Driven Development) приступу. Спецификација захтева у оквиру Silab-UCMDM методе омогућена је преко сопственог доменски специфичног језика (UCDSL). Имплементација предложеног UCDSL језика извршена је преко JetBrains MPS алата за метапрограмирање (JetBrains MPS metaprogramming system). UCDSL језик је интегрисан у оквиру SILAB-MDDTOOLSET алата који се може користити као додатак (plugin) за окружења као што су MPS и IntelliJ IDEA...The thesis discusses the problem of integration of the Use Cases in the Model driven software development and proposes an original Silab-UCMDDM method. The Silab-UCMDDM method emphasizes the importance and necessity of using 3 mutually consistent and complementary models: a) the use case model, b) the domain model and c) the state machine model. The thesis identifies a direct link between these three models which are primarily reflected in the fact that the specification of use case actions should be based on the domain model, while the preconditions and postconditions for executing use cases should be defined in the state machine model. This model state machine model is used for a clear and precise definition of use cases. The Silab-UCMDM method uses two strategies in software development: a) a strategy based on the use cases (Use Case Driven Development) and b) a strategy based on MDD (Model Driven Development) approach. Requirements specification within Silab- UCMDM method is enabled via its own domain specific language (UCDSL). The proposed UCDSL language was performed using the JetBrains MPS tool for metaprogramming (metaprogramming system JetBrains MPS). UCDSL language is integrated within the SILAB-MDDTOOLSET tool that can be used as an add-on (plugin) for environments such as MPS and IntelliJ IDEA. The proposed Silab-UCMDD method was evaluated in three different ways: 1) By performing the comparative analysis of the proposed method and other existing methods. 2) By presenting and analyzing the case study that has been developed using proposed method. 3) By analyzing the results of the testing with students who evaluated the proposed method and UCDSL language for requirements specification and validation. The Silab-UCMDDM method is a part of a comprehensive Silab-MDD approach. Silab-MDD approach defines the way of integration of the Structured System Analysis method, which describes the functionalities of the business system. In addition Silab-MDD defines the phases of requirements gathering and analysis in the software development lifecycle. Therefore, the Silab-MDD approach contains its own domain specific languages for specifying the Data Flow diagrams (DFDDSL) and the Data Dictionary (DataDDSL)..

Innovations for Requirements Analysis, From Stakeholders' Needs to Formal Designs

14th MontereyWorkshop 2007 Monterey, CA, USA, September 10-13, 2007 Revised Selected PapersWe are pleased to present the proceedings of the 14thMontereyWorkshop, which took place September 10–13, 2007 in Monterey, CA, USA. In this preface, we give the reader an overview of what took place at the workshop and introduce the contributions in this Lecture Notes in Computer Science volume. A complete introduction to the theme of the workshop, as well as to the history of the Monterey Workshop series, can be found in Luqi and Kordon’s “Advances in Requirements Engineering: Bridging the Gap between Stakeholders’ Needs and Formal Designs” in this volume. This paper also contains the case study that many participants used as a problem to frame their analyses, and a summary of the workshop’s results