Artificial Intelligence in Requirements Engineering

thingsTHINKING versteht, verarbeitet und verwendet die Semantik der natürlichen Sprache und ist daher verwendbar für eine Vielzahl von Anwendungsfällen. Die bereits bestehende Software erkennt und löst Mängel in natürlicher Sprache von Anforderungsspezifikationen jeglicher Art. Einsatzmöglichkeiten bestehen im Industrie-4.0-Umfeld, bei Software-Herstellern und auch Beratungsunternehmen. Die semantische Verarbeitung natürlicher Sprache bietet viele weitere Möglichkeiten. Mit thingsTHINKING kann zum Beispiel der Kundendienst mit virtuellen Assistenten verbessert werden. Die LegalTech-Lösung könnte bei Entscheidungen und der Interpretation von Verträgen helfen oder einfach nur die Übersetzung für Nicht-Muttersprachler zu verbessern, indem zwischen Sinn und Ausdruck unterschieden wird. Die Anwendungsbereiche für diese Lösungen reichen von Banken, Telekommunikation bis zur Fertigung

Agile Requirement Engineering for a Cloud System for Automated and Networked Vehicles

This paper presents a methodology for the agile development of a cloud system in a multi-partner project centered around automated vehicles. Besides providing an external environment model as an additional input to the automation, the cloud system is also the main gateway for users to interact with automated vehicles through applications on mobile devices. Multiple factors are posing a challenge in our context. Coordination becomes especially challenging, as stakeholders are spread among different locations with backgrounds from various domains. Furthermore, automated vehicles for different applications, such as delivery or taxi services, give rise to a large number of use cases that our cloud system has to support. For our agile development process, we use standardized templates for the description of use-cases, which are initialized from storyboards and iteratively refined by stakeholders. These use-case templates are subsequently transformed into machine-readable specifications, which allows for generation of REST APIs for our cloud system

Applying Human-Centered Design Methods in Industry – a Field Report

Human-centered design methods are nowadays widely used in the design of consumer products. These methods aim at designing products with a high usability and a positive user experience (UX). However, in the domain of the design of industrial machines, design is often driven by functional requirements mostly neglecting the usability and user experience of products. Together with a medium-sized manufacturer of industrial laundry machines we applied the human-centered design process in an industrial context. In this field report, we describe the human-centered design methods applied in the project, the adaptations we had to make in the process and the challenges and opportunities for applying human-centered design in an industrial environment in general

Development Of A Digital Planning Tool For Dimensioning And Investment Cost Calculation In An Early Factory Planning Phase

As an interdisciplinary task, factory planning represents a key factor for logistics, supply chain and ultimately, the economic success of companies in the manufacturing sector. In factory planning projects, the focus is on the early planning phase, where costs and the associated misinvestments can still be significantly influenced. The challenge lies in the early valid dimensioning of the planned factory despite fuzzy data to provide decision-making support regarding the investment costs. In this context, this article presents the development of a digital service and planning tool based on a scientific procedure model. For this purpose, the research needs are first derived, reference is made to a scientific procedure model and the requirements analysis for the tool is presented. The tool developed on this basis aims to dimension and economically assess planned factories at an early planning stage. In this way, decision-makers in companies will be provided with data-based results to make future-oriented decisions between different project scenarios

Language Quality in Information Systems Development – Analyzing the Emergence of Requirements in Natural Language Processes

A central challenge in information systems development (ISD) is the question how meaningful and coherent requirements can be developed as a consensual result of the interaction between analysts and clients. As language-based communication is the main venue for the system‟s conceptualization, we assume that the understanding of how requirements emerge on the micro level of interaction is of critical importance. We claim that the quality of the communication between the different stakeholders depends on the ability to manage the question of how people deal with language in practice and reach consensus in the concrete ISD process. Therefore, in this paper we adapt the concept of quality to the question of how a common language is built in the ISD process. After defining a set of reasonable language quality dimensions, we apply our results to concrete observation cases from an ISD project and obtain insight beneficial to researchers and practitioners alike

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

Towards an Artifact-Oriented Requirements Engineering Model for Developing Successful Products, Services, and Systems: Identification of Model Requirements

Despite extensive research in the domain of requirements engineering (RE), companies still struggle with this discipline. Moreover, practitioners are challenged with developing successful products, services, and systems which address the true needs of their customers. This gives rise to a new research field in the domain of RE, namely artifact orientation. According to the literature, this artifact orientation should increase the success of RE significantly. By conducting a literature review and 7 expert interviews, we identified 7 model requirements (MRs) for an artifact-oriented RE model. Furthermore, the results of this paper suggest that existing artifact-oriented RE models do not sufficiently address all identified MRs. In particular, these models lack the combination of traditional RE practices, such as goal orientation, documentation, and traceability with novel agile approaches. Furthermore, there is a need for a more holistic RE which merges the domains of product, service, and software engineering

Characteristics of Value Bundles in RFID-Enabled Supply Networks

In order to avoid ruinous price competition, companies are intensely seeking new ways to stand out from competitors in a global market scenario. In response to this aim, value bundles provide an approach to grade up existing offerings from isolated goods and services to integrated problem solutions for specific customer needs. This differentiation strategy relies on supply networks as an essential enabler. However, the effect of RFID as a major innovation in supply chain networks on their ability to enable value bundles is widely unexplored. In this paper we use the morphological method to identify typical characteristics of value bundles in RFID-enabled supply networks. The outcome is a set of characteristics which allows for categorization and, based on this, structured comparison of any respective value bundles. The categorization is illustrated and validated with three case studies

IS project evaluation methodology - Science or art?

As language is the venue for the concretisation of concepts and entities in information systems development (ISD), language unambiguousness is understood as an ideal basis for the success of the consolidation process in information systems development. In contrast, a fundamental postulation of language theories is the inherent ambiguity of natural language. Therefore, the analysis of how language consensus can be reached in an effective manner is of particular interest for collaborative ISD. We claim that the effectiveness of ISD depends on the ability to manage the question of how people deal with language in practice and reach consensus in the concrete ISD process. This requirement leads us to the point of emergence of language: the language interaction setting. Hence, we analysed the language interaction in an ISD project and identified different language interaction levels which serve as orientation for specific interventions in an interaction setting, enabling an intensification of consensus negotiation