Specification Cases: a lightweight approach based on Natural Language

Use Cases are one of the most used artifacts in software requirements specifications. Although there are a lot of templates that suggests how to describe Use Cases, as well as many quality inspection techniques, there are no many techniques to deal with the complexity and the effort to produce good quality Use Cases. On top of that, Use Cases are biased towards user interaction, leaving out important domain information. Thus, it is necessary to provide techniques to incrementally describe specifications that goes beyond user interaction but which can be derived from simpler artifacts in order to make the process organized and effective. This paper proposes an approach to begin with very simple sentences (kernel sentences), following with the LEL glossary and Scenarios, in order to describe Specification Cases. The approach relies on already defined kernel sentences and suggests three procedures to reorganize the knowledge captured in kernel sentences to describe the LEL, then Scenarios and finally Use Cases. This paper also reports a preliminary evaluation that supports the applicability and usability of the approach

A Derivation Strategy for Formal Specifications from Natural Language Requirements Models

Formal methods have come into use for the construction of real systems, as they help increase software quality and reliability. However, they are usually accessible only to specialists, thus discouraging stakeholders' participation, crucial in first steps of software development. To address this problem, we present in this paper a strategy to derive an initial formal specification, written in the RAISE Specification Language, from requirements models based on natural language, such as the Language Extended Lexicon, the Scenario Model, and the Business Rules Model, which are closer to the stakeholders' language. We provide a set of heuristics which show how to derive types and functions, and how to structure them in a layered architecture, thus contributing to fruitfully use the large amount of information usually available after requirements modelling stage. In addition, we illustrate the strategy with a concrete case study

Wiki Support for Automated Definition of Software Test Cases

The design of tests is a very important step in the software development process since it allows us to match the users’ expectations with the finished product. Considered as a cumbersome activity, efforts have been made to automatize and alleviate the burden of test generation, but it is still a largely neglected step. We propose taking advantage of existing requirement artifacts, like Scenarios that describe the dynamic of the domain in a very early stage of software development, to obtain tests from them. In particular, the approach proposed complement the Scenarios that are textually described with a glossary, the Language Extended Lexicon. Thus, a set of rules to derive tests from Scenarios is also proposed. The tests are then described using the Task/Method model. The main findings of this work consist of an extension of a previously presented set of rules. And a tool based on a media wiki platform that makes possible to record Scenarios and the Language Extended Lexicon and implement the rules to obtain the tests. The main originality of this work is the glossary which complements Scenarios, the semantic support to obtain tests and the tool to automatize the approach.Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzad

Wiki Support for Automated Definition of Software Test Cases

The design of tests is a very important step in the software development process since it allows us to match the users’ expectations with the finished product. Considered as a cumbersome activity, efforts have been made to automatize and alleviate the burden of test generation, but it is still a largely neglected step. We propose taking advantage of existing requirement artifacts, like Scenarios that describe the dynamic of the domain in a very early stage of software development, to obtain tests from them. In particular, the approach proposed complement the Scenarios that are textually described with a glossary, the Language Extended Lexicon. Thus, a set of rules to derive tests from Scenarios is also proposed. The tests are then described using the Task/Method model. The main findings of this work consist of an extension of a previously presented set of rules. And a tool based on a media wiki platform that makes possible to record Scenarios and the Language Extended Lexicon and implement the rules to obtain the tests. The main originality of this work is the glossary which complements Scenarios, the semantic support to obtain tests and the tool to automatize the approach.Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzad

Using LEL and scenarios to derive mathematical programming models. Application in a fresh tomato packing problem

[EN] Mathematical programming models are invaluable tools at decision making, assisting managers to uncover otherwise unattainable means to optimize their processes. However, the value they provide is only as good as their capacity to capture the process domain. This information can only be obtained from stakeholders, i.e., clients or users, who can hardly communicate the requirements clearly and completely. Besides, existing conceptual models of mathematical programming models are not standardized, nor is the process of deriving the mathematical programming model from the concept model, which remains ad hoc. In this paper, we propose an agile methodology to construct mathematical programming models based on two techniques from requirements engineering that have been proven effective at requirements elicitation: the language extended lexicon (LEL) and scenarios. Using the pair of LEL + scenarios allows to create a conceptual model that is clear and complete enough to derive a mathematical programming model that effectively captures the business domain. We also define an ontology to describe the pair LEL + scenarios, which has been implemented with a semantic mediawiki and allows the collaborative construction of the conceptual model and the semi-automatic derivation of mathematical programming model elements. The process is applied and validated in a known fresh tomato packing optimization problem. This proposal can be of high relevance for the development and implementation of mathematical programming models for optimizing agriculture and supply chain management related processes in order to fill the current gap between mathematical programming models in the theory and the practice.This work was supported by the European Commission, project RUC-APS, grant number 691249, funded by the European Union's research and innovation programme under the H2020 Marie SklodowskaCurie Actions; and the Argentinian National Agency for Scientific and Technical Promotion (ANPCyT), grant number PICT-2015-3000.Garrido, A.; Antonelli, L.; Martin, J.; Alemany Díaz, MDM.; Mula, J. (2020). Using LEL and scenarios to derive mathematical programming models. Application in a fresh tomato packing problem. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. 170:1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2020.105242S114170Alemany, M., Ortiz, A., & Fuertes-Miquel, V. S. (2018). 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Capturing design process information and rationale to support knowledge-based design and analysis integration

Issued as final reportUnited States. Dept. of Commerc

Lexical information from a minimalist point of view

Simplicity as a methodological orientation applies to linguistic theory just as to any other field of research: ‘Occam’s razor’ is the label for the basic heuristic maxim according to which an adequate analysis must ultimately be reduced to indispensible specifications. In this sense, conceptual economy has been a strict and stimulating guideline in the development of Generative Grammar from the very beginning. Halle’s (1959) argument discarding the level of taxonomic phonemics in order to unify two otherwise separate phonological processes is an early characteristic example; a more general notion is that of an evaluation metric introduced in Chomsky (1957, 1975), which relates the relative simplicity of alternative linguistic descriptions systematically to the quest for explanatory adequacy of the theory underlying the descriptions to be evaluated. Further proposals along these lines include the theory of markedness developed in Chomsky and Halle (1968), Kean (1975, 1981), and others, the notion of underspecification proposed e.g. in Archangeli (1984), Farkas (1990), the concept of default values and related notions. An important step promoting this general orientation was the idea of Principles and Parameters developed in Chomsky (1981, 1986), which reduced the notion of language particular rule systems to universal principles, subject merely to parametrization with restricted options, largely related to properties of particular lexical items. On this account, the notion of a simplicity metric is to be dispensed with, as competing analyses of relevant data are now supposed to be essentially excluded by the restrictive system of principles