Requirements engineering within a large-scale security-oriented research project : lessons learned

Requirements engineering has been recognized as a fundamental phase of the software engineering process. Nevertheless, the elicitation and analysis of requirements are often left aside in favor of architecture-driven software development. This tendency, however, can lead to issues that may affect the success of a project. This paper presents our experience gained in the elicitation and analysis of requirements in a large-scale security-oriented European research project, which was originally conceived as an architecture-driven project. In particular, we illustrate the challenges that can be faced in large-scale research projects and consider the applicability of existing best practices and off-the-shelf methodologies with respect to the needs of such projects. We then discuss how those practices and methods can be integrated into the requirements engineering process and possibly improved to address the identified challenges. Finally, we summarize the lessons learned from our experience and the benefits that a proper requirements analysis can bring to a project

Requirements engineering within a large-scale security-oriented research project : lessons learned

Requirements engineering has been recognized as a fundamental phase of the software engineering process. Nevertheless, the elicitation and analysis of requirements are often left aside in favor of architecture-driven software development. This tendency, however, can lead to issues that may affect the success of a project. This paper presents our experience gained in the elicitation and analysis of requirements in a large-scale security-oriented European research project, which was originally conceived as an architecture-driven project. In particular, we illustrate the challenges that can be faced in large-scale research projects and consider the applicability of existing best practices and off-the-shelf methodologies with respect to the needs of such projects. We then discuss how those practices and methods can be integrated into the requirements engineering process and possibly improved to address the identified challenges. Finally, we summarize the lessons learned from our experience and the benefits that a proper requirements analysis can bring to a project

Definition and Validation of a Business IT Alignment Method for Enterprise Governance Improvement in the Context of Processes Based Organizations

These days, it is remarkable to note the growing of interest in professional responsibility. Specifically, the responsibility a person commits to when he or she performs a task. Based on a review of research currently performed in the field of policy (from corporate to technical ones), we observe that the perception of responsibility has often been limited to a combination of rights and obligations. In addition, we are seeing a re-emergence in business (for example, in the financial sector) of a belief that business ethics foundation can be improved and that a renewed focus in this area would help to prevent future breakdowns in the system. With regard to improving business/IT alignment and corporate ICT governance, it becomes increasingly important to define a commonly accepted personal responsibility model that embodies important and well-known concepts like accountability, capability and commitment. Moreover, because responsibility constitutes a fundamental notion of management theory, it is likewise identified as a meaningful bridge toward organizational artifacts. Exploiting process-based approach to define policy seems to offer new research opportunities since process-based organization becomes a continuous widely spread structure.ICT Governance, Responsibility model, Capability, Accountability, Commitment.

Reducing Ambiguities in Customer Requirements Through Historical Rule-Based Knowledge in a Small Organization

During the elicitation process the requirements for a software application are obtained from the customer. Customers often do not know how to clearly express the requirements of the application to be built, causing requirements to be ambiguous. Many studies have been found to cover different characteristics of the requirements elicitation process including methods for reducing ambiguities in requirements. The methods and findings of these studies were found to be too general when it comes to the specific domain of the requirements and knowledge about the requirements. In addition, some studies did not take into consideration the level of expertise of those users performing the process. The focus of this study is to reduce ambiguities in customer requirements for a specific domain through the use of a historical rule-based knowledge and a scripted process. Using a case study scenario, this study explores how ambiguities in customer requirements can be reduced using knowledge about specific requirements for Web-based forms. The scripted process is a step-by-step procedure utilized to guide a novice developer in reducing the ambiguities in customer requirements. The proposed rule-based knowledge encompasses requirements of previously implemented Web-based applications. The results of this study intend to improve domain knowledge sharing between novice and expert developers and domain experts while reducing ambiguities in customer requirements. The existence of ambiguities in requirements and the lack of knowledge about the domain, between customers and the development team, provide the context in this qualitative case study. The outcome of this study demonstrates how ambiguities in requirements can be reduced and easily understood by the development team while lessening the communication gap between all people involved. The impact of this study is relatively associated with the effort and time that goes into understanding requirements and reducing ambiguities