Assessing Traceability of Software Engineering Artifacts

The generation of traceability links or traceability matrices is vital to many software engineering activities. It is also person-power intensive, time-consuming, error-prone, and lacks tool support. The activities that require traceability information include, but are not limited to, risk analysis, impact analysis, criticality assessment, test coverage analysis, and verification and validation of software systems. Information Retrieval (IR) techniques have been shown to assist with the automated generation of traceability links by reducing the time it takes to generate the traceability mapping. Researchers have applied techniques such as Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), vector space retrieval, and probabilistic IR and have enjoyed some success. This paper concentrates on examining issues not previously widely studied in the context of traceability: the importance of the vocabulary base used for tracing and the evaluation and assessment of traceability mappings and methods using secondary measures. We examine these areas and perform empirical studies to understand the importance of each to the traceability of software engineering artifacts

A Framework for Traceability of Legal Requirements in the Dutch Governmental Context

In the past decades, research and practice focused a lot of attention towards traceability in the context of software requirements, food supply chains, manufacturing, and aviation industry. As legislation and regulations in software systems become increasingly relevant, traceability of legal requirements is of great importance. In this study, we aimed to create a framework in which the basis for traceability of legal requirements is addressed. To be able to do so we conducted five case studies at five Dutch governmental institutions, which was followed by a three-round focus group. The resulting framework comprises 22 (layered) traceability elements in relation to three domains that offers a reference model to determine how traceability can be applied in software system design, in the context of the Dutch government

Integração de requisitos orientados ao negócio: apresentação de método e ferramenta

O objetivo desse artigo é apresentar o método iRON (integração de Requisitos Orientados ao Negócio), elaborado com a finalidade de estruturar e alinhar a visão de negócio com o processo de produção e gerenciamento de requisitos, e a ferramenta iRON Explorer construída para sua aplicação. O método e a ferra-menta foram criados no ambiente acadêmico considerando a necessidade de melhorar a compreensão e utilização dos elementos da Engenharia de Requisitos dos alunos de graduação e pós-graduação. Esses alunos levaram a técnica à em-presas públicas e privadas, o que proporcionou o seu amadurecimento com a par-ticipação da academia e mercado. O uso da ferramenta iRON Explorer, no ambi-ente acadêmico, melhorou o gerenciamento de requisitos, operacionalizando a rastreabilidade dos problemas, solução, requisitos do software e regras de negócio. A utilização da ferramenta propiciou a padronização dos artefatos, a avaliação do impacto de mudanças e maior agilidade ao processo.15º Simpósio Argentino de Engenharia de Softwar

Integração de requisitos orientados ao negócio: apresentação de método e ferramenta

O objetivo desse artigo é apresentar o método iRON (integração de Requisi-tos Orientados ao Negócio), elaborado com a finalidade de estruturar e alinhar a visão de negócio com o processo de produção e gerenciamento de requisitos, e a ferramenta iRON Explorer construída para sua aplicação. O método e a fer-ramenta foram criados no ambiente acadêmico considerando a necessidade de melhorar a compreensão e utilização dos elementos da Engenharia de Requisi-tos dos alunos de graduação e pós-graduação. Esses alunos levaram a técnica à empresas públicas e privadas, o que proporcionou o seu amadurecimento com a participação da academia e mercado. O uso da ferramenta iRON Explorer, no ambiente acadêmico, melhorou o gerenciamento de requisitos, operacionalizan-do a rastreabilidade dos problemas, solução, requisitos do software e regras de negócio. A utilização da ferramenta propiciou a padronização dos artefatos, a avaliação do impacto de mudanças e maior agilidade ao processo.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO

OntoTrace : a tool for supporting trace generation in software development by using ontology-based automatic reasoning

Traceability in software development has gained interest due to its software maintainability and quality assurance benefits. Artifacts such as code, requirements, mockups, test cases, among others, are feasible trace sources/targets during the software development process. Existing scientific approaches support tasks like identifying untraced artifacts, establishing new traces, and validating existing traces. However, most approaches require input existing traceability data or are restricted to a certain application domain hindering their practical application. This contemporary challenge in information systems engineering calls for novel traceability solutions. In this paper, we present OntoTrace: a tool for supporting traceability tasks in software development projects by using ontology-based automatic reasoning. OntoTrace allows software development teams for inferring traceability-related data such as i) which are the traceable source/target artifacts; ii) which artifacts are not yet traced; and iii) given a specific artifact, which are the possible traces between it and other artifacts. We demonstrate how OntoTrace works in the context of the Swiss startup LogicFlow AG, supporting the traceability between functional/non-functional requirements and user interface test cases. We conclude the paper by reflecting on the experience from applying the approach in practice, and we draw on future challenges and next research endeavors

Integração de requisitos orientados ao negócio: apresentação de método e ferramenta

O objetivo desse artigo é apresentar o método iRON (integração de Requisi-tos Orientados ao Negócio), elaborado com a finalidade de estruturar e alinhar a visão de negócio com o processo de produção e gerenciamento de requisitos, e a ferramenta iRON Explorer construída para sua aplicação. O método e a fer-ramenta foram criados no ambiente acadêmico considerando a necessidade de melhorar a compreensão e utilização dos elementos da Engenharia de Requisi-tos dos alunos de graduação e pós-graduação. Esses alunos levaram a técnica à empresas públicas e privadas, o que proporcionou o seu amadurecimento com a participação da academia e mercado. O uso da ferramenta iRON Explorer, no ambiente acadêmico, melhorou o gerenciamento de requisitos, operacionalizan-do a rastreabilidade dos problemas, solução, requisitos do software e regras de negócio. A utilização da ferramenta propiciou a padronização dos artefatos, a avaliação do impacto de mudanças e maior agilidade ao processo.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO

Test case generation optimization using combination prediction model and prioritization identification for complex system retesting

Nowadays, the retesting process has become crucial in assessing the functionality and correctness of a system in order to ensure high reliability. Although many techniques and approaches have been introduced by researchers, some issues still need addressing to ensure test case adequacy. To determine test case adequacy, it is crucial to first determine the test set size in terms of number of test cases to prevent the system from failing to execute. It is also crucial to identify the requirement specification factor that would solve the problem of insufficiency and scenario redundancy. To overcome this drawback, this study proposed an approach for test case generation in the retesting process by combining two models, which would reveal more severe faults and improve software quality. The first model was enhanced through determining the test case set size by constructing a predictive model based on failure rate using seed fault validation. This model was then extended to requirement prioritisation. Next, it was used to schedule the test cases that focus on Prioritisation Factor Value of requirement specifications. The Test Point Analysis was used to evaluate test effort by measuring level of estimation complexity and by considering the relationship among test cases, fault response time, and fault resolution time. This approach was then evaluated using complex system that called as Plantation Management System as a project case study. Data of Payroll and Labour Management module that applied in 138 estates been collected for this study. As a result, the test case generation approach was able to measure test effort with High accuracy based on two combination model and it achieved a complexity level with 90% confidence bounds of Relative Error. This result proves that this approach can forecast test effort rank based on complexity level of requirement, which can be extracted from early on in the testing phase

Collaborative traceability management: a multiple case study from the perspectives of organization, process, and culture

Traceability is crucial for many activities in software and systems engineering including monitoring the development progress, and proving compliance with standards. In practice, the use and maintenance of trace links are challenging as artifacts undergo constant change, and development takes place in distributed scenarios with multiple collaborating stakeholders. Although traceability management in general has been addressed in previous studies, there is a need for empirical insights into the collaborative aspects of traceability management and how it is situated in existing development contexts. The study reported in this paper aims to close this gap by investigating the relation of collaboration and traceability management, based on an understanding of characteristics of the development effort. In our multiple exploratory case study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 24 individuals from 15 industrial projects. We explored which challenges arise, how traceability management can support collaboration, how collaboration relates to traceability management approaches, and what characteristics of the development effort influence traceability management and collaboration. We found that practitioners struggle with the following challenges: (1) collaboration across team and tool boundaries, (2) conveying the benefits of traceability, and (3) traceability maintenance. If these challenges are addressed, we found that traceability can facilitate communication and knowledge management in distributed contexts. Moreover, there exist multiple approaches to traceability management with diverse collaboration approaches, i.e., requirements-centered, developer-driven, and mixed approaches. While traceability can be leveraged in software development with both agile and plan-driven paradigms, a certain level of rigor is needed to realize its benefits and overcome challenges. To support practitioners, we provide principles of collaborative traceability management. The main contribution of this paper is empirical evidence of how culture, processes, and organization impact traceability management and collaboration, and principles to support practitioners with collaborative traceability management. We show that collaboration and traceability management have the potential to be mutually beneficial—when investing in one, also the other one is positively affected