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

Conceptualization of the use of Artificial Intelligence for Interdependencies Analysis in Requirements Engineering

The efficiency in product development is largely determined by the quality of the requirements and the ability of the product design and production planner to analyze them. Interdependencies between multiple requirements identified at an early stage enable a sustainable design of the product as well as the corresponding production system by increasing process efficiency as well as the effectiveness of development processes. However, the necessary analysis of complex interdependencies between requirements of a product and the corresponding production system is time-consuming, error-prone, and highly inefficient when performed manually. Current development processes are based on such manual processes for analyzing requirements in natural language and must therefore be adapted. This paper describes a methodical approach based on a semi-systematic literature review making the complexity of the interdependencies manageable by using existing approaches and methods in the field of model-based systems engineering (MBSE) as well as natural language processing (NLP). Thereby, a transition from informal requirements represented in natural language to analyzable and structured information, which enable interdependencies modeling for requirement chains, is described. A corresponding framework for analyzing interdependencies in the requirements engineering process is derived

Procedure Model for the Analysis and Design of Reporting Systems – A Case Study in Conceptual Modelling

A structured conceptual design of reporting systems is a crucial task that has to precede implementation and monitoring. A basic challenge can be seen in information requirements engineering. On the one hand, users need certain information to successfully accomplish their tasks. On the other hand, it has to be avoided to supply them with too much and potentially irrelevant information. Information requirements engineering has to support the conceptual specification of information requirements. Thus, there is need for conceptual languages and appropriate procedure models. We propose a procedure model for the analysis and conceptual design of reporting systems as well as a conceptual modelling language that can be used for both as-is analysis and to-be modelling. It has been developed in an iterative approach based on multiple case studies. Due to the fact that different projects and different basic conditions require the use of different approaches of information requirements engineering, within the procedure model different approaches can be used. In this paper we introduce both procedure model and conceptual modelling language and present findings of a case study in which they were used

User stories collection via interactive chatbot to support requirements gathering

Nowadays, software products have become an essential part of human life. To build software, developers must have a good understanding of the requirements of the software. However, software developers tend to jumpstart system construction without having a clear and detailed understanding of the requirements. The user story concept is one of the practices of the requirements elicitation. This paper aims to present the work conducted to develop an Android chatbot application to support the requirements elicitation activity in software engineering, making the work less time-consuming and structured even for users not accustomed to requirements engineering. The chatbot uses Nazief & Adriani stemming algorithm to pre-process the natural language it receives from the users and artificial mark-up language (AIML) as the knowledge base to process the bot’s responses. A preliminary acceptance test based on the technology acceptance model results in an 83.03% score for users’ behavioral intention to use

A Model-Driven approach for functional test case generation

Test phase is one of the most critical phases in software engineering life cycle to assure the final system quality. In this context, functional system test cases verify that the system under test fulfills its functional specification. Thus, these test cases are frequently designed from the different scenarios and alternatives depicted in functional requirements. The objective of this paper is to introduce a systematic process based on the Model-Driven paradigm to automate the generation of functional test cases from functional requirements. For this aim, a set of metamodels and transformations and also a specific language domain to use them is presented. The paper finishes stating learned lessons from the trenches as well as relevant future work and conclusions that draw new research lines in the test cases generation context.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2013-46928-C3-3-

A Model-Based Systems Engineering Approach to e-VTOL Aircraft and Airspace Infrastructure Design for Urban Air Mobility

This paper serves to contribute to Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) by following the NASA Systems Engineering Handbook framework for a Systems Engineering (SE) design approach to an Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (e-VTOL) aircraft and the incorporating airspace infrastructure. The focus of this study is, by using the MBSE model created, to capture the technical requirements definition and design intent of the vehicle and airspace inclusive of community specific knowledge derived from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) NextGen Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Concept of Operations (ConOps) version 1.0. The stakeholder requirements derived from the FAA UAM NextGen ConOps will form the bedrock for the aircraft infrastructure requirements from which the flight mission requirements are derived. From these requirements, the profile of a notional flight mission is provided. Additionally, from the flight mission requirements, a design solution can be proposed and examined to ensure it meets the original stakeholder needs. The vehicle and associated airspace environment are modeled using an MBSE dedicated platform, Cameo Systems Modeler, in a language called SysML. The resulting MBSE model created can demonstrate the traceability between top-level system requirements down to the subcomponent-level design. In the conclusive study of the sub-system behavioral relationships, the analysis and validation of the proposed design solution can support model reliability

Generating target system specifications from a domain model using CLIPS

The quest for reuse in software engineering is still being pursued and researchers are actively investigating the domain modeling approach to software construction. There are several domain modeling efforts reported in the literature and they all agree that the components that are generated from domain modeling are more conducive to reuse. Once a domain model is created, several target systems can be generated by tailoring the domain model or by evolving the domain model and then tailoring it according to the specified requirements. This paper presents the Evolutionary Domain Life Cycle (EDLC) paradigm in which a domain model is created using multiple views, namely, aggregation hierarchy, generalization/specialization hierarchies, object communication diagrams and state transition diagrams. The architecture of the Knowledge Based Requirements Elicitation Tool (KBRET) which is used to generate target system specifications is also presented. The preliminary version of KBRET is implemented in the C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS)