An analysis of the requirements traceability problem

In this paper1, we investigate and discuss the underlying nature of the requirements traceability problem. Our work is based on empirical studies, involving over 100 practitioners, and an evaluation of current support. We introduce the distinction between pre-requirements specification (pre-RS) traceability and post-requirements specification (post-RS) traceability, to demonstrate why an all-encompassing solution to the problem is unlikely, and to provide a framework through which to understand its multifaceted nature. We report how the majority of the problems attributed to poor requirements traceability are due to inadequate pre-RS traceability and show the fundamental need for improvements here. In the remainder of the paper, we present an analysis of the main barriers confronting such improvements in practice, identify relevant areas in which advances have been (or can be) made, and make recommendations for research

Requirements analysis of the VoD application using the tools in TRADE

This report contains a specification of requirements for a video-on-demand (VoD) application developed at Belgacom, used as a trial application in the 2RARE project. The specification contains three parts: an informal specification in natural language; a semiformal specification consisting of a number of diagrams intended to illustrate the informal specification; and a formal specification that makes the requiremants on the desired software system precise. The informal specification is structured in such a way that it resembles official specification documents conforming to standards such as that of IEEE or ESA. The semiformal specification uses some of the tools in from a requirements engineering toolkit called TRADE (Toolkit for Requirements And Design Engineering). The purpose of TRADE is to combine the best ideas in current structured and object-oriented analysis and design methods within a traditional systems engineering framework. In the case of the VoD system, the systems engineering framework is useful because it provides techniques for allocation and flowdown of system functions to components. TRADE consists of semiformal techniques taken from structured and object-oriented analysis as well as a formal specification langyage, which provides constructs that correspond to the semiformal constructs. The formal specification used in TRADE is LCM (Language for Conceptual Modeling), which is a syntactically sugared version of order-sorted dynamic logic with equality. The purpose of this report is to illustrate and validate the TRADE/LCM approach in the specification of distributed, communication-intensive systems

Embedding Requirements within the Model Driven Architecture

The Model Driven Architecture (MDA) brings benefits to software development, among them the potential for connecting software models with the business domain. This paper focuses on the upstream or Computation Independent Model (CIM) phase of the MDA. Our contention is that, whilst there are many models and notations available within the CIM Phase, those that are currently popular and supported by the Object Management Group (OMG), may not be the most useful notations for business analysts nor sufficient to fully support software requirements and specification. Therefore, with specific emphasis on the value of the Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) for business analysts, this paper provides an example of a typical CIM approach before describing an approach which incorporates specific requirements techniques. A framework extension to the MDA is then introduced; which embeds requirements and specification within the CIM, thus further enhancing the utility of MDA by providing a more complete method for business analysis

Requirements modelling and formal analysis using graph operations

The increasing complexity of enterprise systems requires a more advanced analysis of the representation of services expected than is currently possible. Consequently, the specification stage, which could be facilitated by formal verification, becomes very important to the system life-cycle. This paper presents a formal modelling approach, which may be used in order to better represent the reality of the system and to verify the awaited or existing system’s properties, taking into account the environmental characteristics. For that, we firstly propose a formalization process based upon properties specification, and secondly we use Conceptual Graphs operations to develop reasoning mechanisms of verifying requirements statements. The graphic visualization of these reasoning enables us to correctly capture the system specifications by making it easier to determine if desired properties hold. It is applied to the field of Enterprise modelling

The REVERE project:Experiments with the application of probabilistic NLP to systems engineering

Despite natural language’s well-documented shortcomings as a medium for precise technical description, its use in software-intensive systems engineering remains inescapable. This poses many problems for engineers who must derive problem understanding and synthesise precise solution descriptions from free text. This is true both for the largely unstructured textual descriptions from which system requirements are derived, and for more formal documents, such as standards, which impose requirements on system development processes. This paper describes experiments that we have carried out in the REVERE1 project to investigate the use of probabilistic natural language processing techniques to provide systems engineering support