SMA -- The Smyle Modeling Approach

This paper introduces the model-based software development lifecycle model SMA -- the Smyle Modeling Approach -- which is centered around Smyle. Smyle is a dedicated learning procedure to support engineers to interactively obtain design models from requirements, characterized as either being desired (positive) or unwanted (negative) system behavior. Within SMA, the learning approach is complemented by so-called scenario patterns where the engineer can specify clearly desired or unwanted behavior. This way, user interaction is reduced to the interesting scenarios limiting the design effort considerably. In SMA, the learning phase is further complemented by an effective analysis phase that allows for detecting design flaws at an early design stage. Using learning techniques allows us to gradually develop and refine requirements, naturally supporting evolving requirements, and allows for a rather inexpensive redesign in case anomalous system behavior is detected during analysis, testing, or maintenance. This paper describes the approach and reports on first practical experiences

SMA -- The Smyle Modeling Approach

This paper introduces the model-based software development lifecycle model SMA -- the Smyle Modeling Approach -- which is centered around Smyle. Smyle is a dedicated learning procedure to support engineers to interactively obtain design models from requirements, characterized as either being desired (positive) or unwanted (negative) system behavior. Within SMA, the learning approach is complemented by so-called scenario patterns where the engineer can specify clearly desired or unwanted behavior. This way, user interaction is reduced to the interesting scenarios limiting the design effort considerably. In SMA, the learning phase is further complemented by an effective analysis phase that allows for detecting design flaws at an early design stage. Using learning techniques allows us to gradually develop and refine requirements, naturally supporting evolving requirements, and allows for a rather inexpensive redesign in case anomalous system behavior is detected during analysis, testing, or maintenance. This paper describes the approach and reports on first practical experiences

Agile Requirements Engineering: A systematic literature review

Nowadays, Agile Software Development (ASD) is used to cope with increasing complexity in system development. Hybrid development models, with the integration of User-Centered Design (UCD), are applied with the aim to deliver competitive products with a suitable User Experience (UX). Therefore, stakeholder and user involvement during Requirements Engineering (RE) are essential in order to establish a collaborative environment with constant feedback loops. The aim of this study is to capture the current state of the art of the literature related to Agile RE with focus on stakeholder and user involvement. In particular, we investigate what approaches exist to involve stakeholder in the process, which methodologies are commonly used to present the user perspective and how requirements management is been carried out. We conduct a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) with an extensive quality assessment of the included studies. We identified 27 relevant papers. After analyzing them in detail, we derive deep insights to the following aspects of Agile RE: stakeholder and user involvement, data gathering, user perspective, integrated methodologies, shared understanding, artifacts, documentation and Non-Functional Requirements (NFR). Agile RE is a complex research field with cross-functional influences. This study will contribute to the software development body of knowledge by assessing the involvement of stakeholder and user in Agile RE, providing methodologies that make ASD more human-centric and giving an overview of requirements management in ASD.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2013-46928-C3-3-RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2015-71938-RED

Approach for model-based requirements engineering for the planning of engineering generations in the agile development of mechatronic systems

The crucial factor for a successful usage of modeling approaches of systems engineering is the interaction of language, method, and tool. For this, specific challenges arise for the application of MBSE in agile requirements engineering. From observations in agile development practice at a machine tool manufacturer, the challenges for model-based requirements engineering are described and each is assigned to its critical aspect of modeling: The language must formally represent the requirements data model, especially for planning engineering generations. The tool must support collaborative, interdisciplinary cooperation, and consider the dynamics of the requirements model during the development process. The method must individually support the requirements engineering activities, which are carried out several times in a sprint during the development process and must enable a target-oriented process for bundling the requirements into engineering generations. Taking these demands into account, an approach is then presented providing activity-based views in conjunction with activity steps based on a consistent ontology for the description of product requirements and verification activities. The activity steps are composed in activity patterns and support the user in making use of the views for modeling requirements for the engineering generations. The approach is implemented in the software JIRA at a machine tool manufacturer. The subsequent evaluation shows that the approach is used in development practice and offers the potential to plan engineering generation systematically and comprehensibly and to ensure a regular review of the implemented requirements

Self-adaptation through incremental generative model transformations at runtime

A self-adaptive system uses runtime models to adapt its architecture to the changing requirements and contexts. However, there is no one-to-one mapping between the requirements in the problem space and the architectural elements in the solution space. Instead, one refined requirement may crosscut multiple architectural elements, and its realization involves complex behavioral or structural interactions manifested as architectural design decisions. In this paper we propose to combine two kinds of self-adaptations: requirements-driven self-adaptation, which captures requirements as goal models to reason about the best plan within the problem space, and architecture-based self-adaptation, which captures architectural design decisions as decision trees to search for the best design for the desired requirements within the contextualized solution space. Following these adaptations, component-based architecture models are reconfigured using incremental and generative model transformations. Compared with requirements-driven or architecture-based approaches, the case study using an online shopping benchmark shows promise that our approach can further improve the effectiveness of adaptation (e.g. system throughput in this case study) and offer more adaptation flexibility

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

Early Quantitative Assessment of Non-Functional Requirements

Non-functional requirements (NFRs) of software systems are a well known source of uncertainty in effort estimation. Yet, quantitatively approaching NFR early in a project is hard. This paper makes a step towards reducing the impact of uncertainty due to NRF. It offers a solution that incorporates NFRs into the functional size quantification process. The merits of our solution are twofold: first, it lets us quantitatively assess the NFR modeling process early in the project, and second, it lets us generate test cases for NFR verification purposes. We chose the NFR framework as a vehicle to integrate NFRs into the requirements modeling process and to apply quantitative assessment procedures. Our solution proposal also rests on the functional size measurement method, COSMIC-FFP, adopted in 2003 as the ISO/IEC 19761 standard. We extend its use for NFR testing purposes, which is an essential step for improving NFR development and testing effort estimates, and consequently for managing the scope of NFRs. We discuss the advantages of our approach and the open questions related to its design as well

Clustering and its Application in Requirements Engineering

Large scale software systems challenge almost every activity in the software development life-cycle, including tasks related to eliciting, analyzing, and specifying requirements. Fortunately many of these complexities can be addressed through clustering the requirements in order to create abstractions that are meaningful to human stakeholders. For example, the requirements elicitation process can be supported through dynamically clustering incoming stakeholders’ requests into themes. Cross-cutting concerns, which have a significant impact on the architectural design, can be identified through the use of fuzzy clustering techniques and metrics designed to detect when a theme cross-cuts the dominant decomposition of the system. Finally, traceability techniques, required in critical software projects by many regulatory bodies, can be automated and enhanced by the use of cluster-based information retrieval methods. Unfortunately, despite a significant body of work describing document clustering techniques, there is almost no prior work which directly addresses the challenges, constraints, and nuances of requirements clustering. As a result, the effectiveness of software engineering tools and processes that depend on requirements clustering is severely limited. This report directly addresses the problem of clustering requirements through surveying standard clustering techniques and discussing their application to the requirements clustering process

Scope Management of Non-Functional Requirements

In order to meet commitments in software projects, a realistic assessment must be made of project scope. Such an assessment relies on the availability of knowledge on the user-defined project requirements and their effort estimates and priorities, as well as their risk. This knowledge enables analysts, managers and software engineers to identify the most significant requirements from the list of requirements initially defined by the user. In practice, this scope assessment is applied to the Functional Requirements (FRs) provided by users who are unaware of, or ignore, the Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs). This paper presents ongoing research which aims at managing NFRs during the software development process. Establishing the relative priority of each NFR, and obtaining a rough estimate of the effort and risk associated with it, is integral to the software development process and to resource management. Our work extends the taxonomy of the NFR framework by integrating the concept of the "hardgoal". A functional size measure of NFRs is applied to facilitate the effort estimation process. The functional size measurement method we have chosen is COSMICFFP, which is theoretically sound and the de facto standard in the software industry