A requirements engineering framework for integrated systems development for the construction industry

Computer Integrated Construction (CIC) systems are computer environments through which collaborative working can be undertaken. Although many CIC systems have been developed to demonstrate the communication and collaboration within the construction projects, the uptake of CICs by the industry is still inadequate. This is mainly due to the fact that research methodologies of the CIC development projects are incomplete to bridge the technology transfer gap. Therefore, defining comprehensive methodologies for the development of these systems and their effective implementation on real construction projects is vital. Requirements Engineering (RE) can contribute to the effective uptake of these systems because it drives the systems development for the targeted audience. This paper proposes a requirements engineering approach for industry driven CIC systems development. While some CIC systems are investigated to build a broad and deep contextual knowledge in the area, the EU funded research project, DIVERCITY (Distributed Virtual Workspace for Enhancing Communication within the Construction Industry), is analysed as the main case study project because its requirements engineering approach has the potential to determine a framework for the adaptation of requirements engineering in order to contribute towards the uptake of CIC systems

Detecting Functional Requirements Inconsistencies within Multi-teams Projects Framed into a Model-based Web Methodology

One of the most essential processes within the software project life cycle is the REP (Requirements Engineering Process) because it allows specifying the software product requirements. This specification should be as consistent as possible because it allows estimating in a suitable manner the effort required to obtain the final product. REP is complex in itself, but this complexity is greatly increased in big, distributed and heterogeneous projects with multiple analyst teams and high integration between functional modules. This paper presents an approach for the systematic conciliation of functional requirements in big projects dealing with a web model-based approach and how this approach may be implemented in the context of the NDT (Navigational Development Techniques): a web methodology. This paper also describes the empirical evaluation in the CALIPSOneo project by analyzing the improvements obtained with our approach.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2013-46928-C3-3-RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2015-71938-RED

OpenReq: recommender systems in requirements engineering

The major focus of OpenReq is the development of recommendation and decision technologies that effciently support requirements engineering processes in large and distributed software projects. Example scenarios thereof are the bid management in industrial systems, requirements engineering in cross-plattform open source software development, and requirements management in large user communities (telecommunications sector). The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of OpenReq and to provide insights into related application scenarios and research issues.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Industry-driven innovative system development for the construction industry: The DIVERCITY project

Collaborative working has become possible using the innovative integrated systems in construction as many activities are performed globally with stakeholders situated in various locations. The Integrated VR based information systems can bind the fragmentation and provide communication and collaboration between the distributed stakeholders n various locations. The development of these technologies is vital for the uptake of these systems by the construction industry. This paper starts by emphasising the importance of construction IT research and reviews some future research directions in this area. In particular, the paper explores how virtual prototyping can improve the productivity and effectiveness of construction projects, and presents DIVERCITY, which is th as a case study of the research in virtual prototyping. Besides, the paper explores the requirements engineering of the DIVERCITY project. DIVERCITY has large and evolving requirements, which considered the perspectives of multiple stakeholders, such as clients, architects and contractors. However, practitioners are often unsure of the detail of how virtual environments would support the construction process, and how to overcome some barriers to the introduction of new technologies. This complicates the requirements engineering process

The Structures of Computation: A Distributed Cognitive Analysis of Requirements Evolution in Diverse Software Development Environments

Despite decades of research, effective requirements engineering (RE) remains a significant challenge for software development projects. In addition, the study of RE processes has failed to keep pace with dramatic changes in IS development practice. In this study, we frame RE as a fundamentally socio-technical computational task in which diverse social actors and artifacts collaboratively “compute” the requirements for an envisioned software system. Through the perspective of distributed cognition, we analyze the distributed RE activities of three IS development projects, representing distinct methodological approaches. We develop models of the computational structures of these projects to support a novel analytical basis for comparison and contrast of three development methodologies - structured development, agile development, and open source software development

Personal recommendations in requirements engineering : the OpenReq approach

[Context & motivation] Requirements Engineering (RE) is considered as one of the most critical phases in software development but still many challenges remain open. [Problem] There is a growing trend of applying recommender systems to solve open RE challenges like requirements and stakeholder discovery; however, the existent proposals focus on specific RE tasks and do not give a general coverage for the RE process. [Principal ideas/results] In this research preview, we present the OpenReq approach to the development of intelligent recommendation and decision technologies that support different phases of RE in software projects. Specifically, we present the OpenReq part for personal recommendations for stakeholders. [Contribution] OpenReq aim is to improve and speed up RE processes, especially in large and distributed systemsPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Collaborative Requirements Engineering Notation for Planning Globally Distributed Projects

Requirements engineering represents a critical phase of the software development lifecycle in which requirements describing the functional and non-functional behaviors of a system are elicited, modeled, analyzed, negotiated, agreed, and specified. In traditional software systems these tasks are typically performed in face-to-face meetings between requirements engineers and the project level stakeholders. However, in today’s global software development environment, it is becoming increasingly commonplace for stakeholders to be dispersed across multiple geographical locations and time zones. Under these circumstances, face-to-face meetings become expensive, and often impossible to facilitate, and as a result the success of the requirements process relies, at least partially, on tools and processes that support distributed communication and collaboration. To investigate the challenges and effective practices for performing requirements activities in distributed environments, we conducted a series of in-depth interviews with project managers and business analysts who have worked with non-co-located stakeholders. Since many project managers fail to plan and deploy the necessary infrastructures to support quality communication, and in practice requirements are often elicited and managed via email exchanges; we introduced a visual modeling notation to help project managers proactively plan the collaboration infrastructures needed to support requirements-related activities in globally distributed projects. An underlying meta-model defines the elements of the modeling language, including locations, stakeholder roles, communication flows, critical documents, and supporting tools and repositories. The interview findings were further analyzed to identify practices that led to success or created significant challenges for the projects; resulting in a set of patterns for globally distributed requirements engineering

‘Computing’ Requirements in Open Source Software Projects

Due to high dissimilarity with traditional software development, Requirements Engineering (RE) in Open Source Software (OSS) remains poorly understood, despite the visible success of many OSS projects. In this study, we approach OSS RE as a sociotechnical and distributed cognitive activity where multiple actors deploy heterogeneous artifacts to ‘compute’ requirements as to reach a collectively-held understanding of what the software is going to do. We conduct a case study of a popular OSS project, Rubinius (a Ruby programming language runtime environment). Specifically, we investigate the ways in which this project exhibits distribution of cognitive efforts along social, structural, and temporal dimensions and how its requirements computation takes place accordingly. In particular, we seek to generalize to a theoretical framework that explains how three temporally-ordered processes of distributed cognition in OSS projects, denoted excavation, instantiation, and testing-in-the-wild, tie together to form a powerful distributed computational structure to manage requirements

A Systematic Literature Review on Blockchain Technology in Software Engineering

Blockchain technology is gaining increasing interest among software developers as a distributed and decentralized ledger for tracking the origin of digital assets. However, the application of blockchain in software engineering requires further attention. In this study, we aim to address the current challenges and explore the need for specialized blockchain practices in software engineering. Through a systematic literature review, we identify the various applications of blockchain technology in software engineering. Additionally, we conduct a thorough analysis of existing obstacles and propose potential solutions. Gathering and evaluating requirements using blockchain-based requirements engineering approaches will enhance the quality and reliability of data in software development projects. This, in turn, will improve the overall quality and dependability of software, as well as increase user interest and productivity

Multi-site software engineering ontology instantiations management using reputation based decision making

In this paper we explore the development of systems for software engineering ontology instantiations management in the methodology for multi-site distributed software development. Ultimately the systems facilitate collaboration of teams in multi-site distributed software development. In multi-site distributed environment, team members in the software engineering projects have naturally an interaction with each other and share lots of project data/agreement amongst themselves. Since theyare not always residing at the same place and face-to-face meetings hardly happen, there is a need for methodology and tools that facilitate effective communication for efficient collaboration. Whist multi-site distributed teams collaborate, there are a lot of shared project data updated or created. In a large volume of project data, systematic management is of importance. Software engineering knowledge is represented in the software engineering ontology whose instantiations, which are undergoing evolution, need a good management system. Software engineering ontology instantiations signify project information which is shared and has evolved to reflect project development, changes in the software requirements or in the design process, to incorporate additional functionality to systems or to allow incremental improvement, etc