Conflict characterization and Analysis of Non Functional Requirements: An experimental approach

Prior studies reveal that conflicts among Non Functional Requirements (NFRs) are not always absolute. They can also be relative depending on the context of the system being developed. Given that existing techniques to manage the NFRs conflicts are mainly focused on cataloguing the interrelationships among various types of NFRs, hence a technique to manage the NFRs conflicts with respect to NFRs relative characteristic is needed. This paper presents a novel framework to manage the conflicts among NFRs with respect to NFRs relative characteristic. By applying an experimental approach, the quantitative evidence of NFRs conflicts will be obtained and modeled. NFRs metrics and measures will be used in the experiments as parameters to generate the quantitative evidence. This evidence can then allow developers to identify and reason about the NFRs conflicts. We also provide an example of how this framework could be applied. © 2013 IEEE

A Systematic Classification and Analysis of NFRs

The main agenda of Requirements Engineering (RE) is the development of tools, techniques and languages for the elicitation, specification, negotiation, and validation of software requirements. However, this development has traditionally been focused on functional requirements (FRs), rather than non-functional requirements (NFRs). Consequently, NFR approaches developed over the years have been fragmental and there is a lack of clear understanding of the positions of these approaches in the RE process. This paper provides a systematic classification and analysis of 89 NFR approaches

Explainable software systems: from requirements analysis to system evaluation

The growing complexity of software systems and the influence of software-supported decisions in our society sparked the need for software that is transparent, accountable, and trustworthy. Explainability has been identified as a means to achieve these qualities. It is recognized as an emerging non-functional requirement (NFR) that has a significant impact on system quality. Accordingly, software engineers need means to assist them in incorporating this NFR into systems. This requires an early analysis of the benefits and possible design issues that arise from interrelationships between different quality aspects. However, explainability is currently under-researched in the domain of requirements engineering, and there is a lack of artifacts that support the requirements engineering process and system design. In this work, we remedy this deficit by proposing four artifacts: a definition of explainability, a conceptual model, a knowledge catalogue, and a reference model for explainable systems. These artifacts should support software and requirements engineers in understanding the definition of explainability and how it interacts with other quality aspects. Besides that, they may be considered a starting point to provide practical value in the refinement of explainability from high-level requirements to concrete design choices, as well as on the identification of methods and metrics for the evaluation of the implemented requirements

An HCI quality attributes taxonomy for an impact analysis to interactive systems design and improvement

In the interaction between users and systems, software quality attributes are mainly involved. When designing interfaces for human-computer interaction different alternatives can be considered in order to obtain the highest quality in an interactive system. However, quality attributes have positive and negative contribution relationships among each other, so that a change in one of them can cause a higher improvement than expected or an unwanted degradation of the system. This is the reason why in this paper we propose a taxonomy of non-functional requirements that can be assigned quality properties susceptible to be measured to propose alternatives that achieve a better quality for the systems. Quality that can be obtained by taking into account the contribution relationships among quality attributes, in order to select those alternatives that provide the biggest gain of system quality for the design and improvement of systems and software interfaces.XIII Workshop Ingeniería de Software (WIS).Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Developing a catalogue of errors and evaluating its impact on software development

The development of quality software is of paramount importance, yet this has been and continues to be an elusive goal for software engineers. Delivered software often fails due to errors that are injected during its development. Correcting these errors early in the development or preventing them altogether can, therefore, be considered as one way to improve software quality. In this thesis, the development of a Catalogue of Errors is described. Field studies with senior software engineering students are used to confirm that developers using the Catalogue of Errors commit fewer errors in their development artifacts. The impact of the Catalogue of Errors on productivity is also examined

Orchestrating Forest Policy in Italy: Mission Impossible?

In the Italian political and economic agenda the forest sector occupies a marginal role. The forest sector in Italy is characterized by a high institutional fragmentation and centralized decision-making processes dominated by Public Forest Administrations. Public participation in forest policy processes has been implemented since the 1990s at national, regional and local levels in several cases. However, today no significant changes have been observed in the overall governance of the forest sector and stakeholders' involvement in Italian forest policy decision-making is still rather limited. The aims of this paper are to describe the state of forest-related participatory processes in Italy at various levels (national, regional and local) and identify which factors and actors hinder or support the establishment and implementation of participatory forest-related processes in the country. The forest-related participatory processes are analyzed adopting a qualitative-based approach and interpreting interactive, complex and non-linear participatory processes through the lens of panarchy theory