Managing requirements evolution: Using reconstructed traceability and requirements views

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc

Reconstructing Requirements Traceability in Design and Test Using Latent Semantic Indexing

Managing traceability data is an important aspect of the software development process. In this paper we define a methodology, consisting of six steps, for reconstructing requirements views using traceability data. One of the steps concerns the reconstruction of the traceability data. We investigate to what extent Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), an information retrieval technique, can help recovering the information needed for automatically reconstructing traceability of requirements during the development process. We experiment with different link selection strategies and apply LSI in multiple case studies varying in size and context. We discuss the results of a small lab study, a larger case study and a large industrial case study.Software TechnologyElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc

Towards Software Component Procurement Automation

One of the first steps of component procurement is the identification of required component features in large repositories of existing components. On the highest level of abstraction, component requirements as well as component descriptions are usually written in natural language. Therefore, we can reformulate component procurement as a text analysis problem and apply latent semantic analysis for automatically identifying suitable existing components in large repositories, based on the descriptions of required component features. In this article, we motivate our choice of this technique for feature identification, describe how it can be applied to feature tracing problems, and discuss the results that we achieved with the application of this technique in a number of case studies. Preprint accepted for publiction in: Third International Workshop on Coordination and Adaptation Techniques for Software Entities. WCAT’06, July 4th, 2006, Nantes, FranceSoftware TechnologyElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc

Reformulating Component Identification as Document Analysis Problem

One of the first steps of component procurement is the identification of required component features in large repositories of existing components. On the highest level of abstraction, component requirements as well as component descriptions are usually written in natural language. Therefore, we can reformulate component identification as a text analysis problem and apply latent semantic analysis for automatically identifying suitable existing components in large repositories, based on the descriptions of required component features. In this article, we motivate our choice of this technique for feature identification, describe how it can be applied to feature tracing problems, and discuss the results that we achieved with the application of this technique in a number of case studies. Paper accepted for publication in ICSOFT 2007, Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Software and Data Technologies, Volume SE, Barcelona, Spain, July 22-25, 2007.Software TechnologyElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc

An industrial case study in reconstructing requirements views

Requirements views, such as coverage and status views, are an important asset for monitoring and managing software development projects. We have developed a method that automates the process of reconstructing these views, and we have built a tool, REQANALYST, that supports this method. This paper presents an investigation as to which extent requirements views can be automatically generated in order to monitor requirements in industrial practice. The paper focuses on monitoring the requirements in test categories and test cases. In order to retrieve the necessary data, an information retrieval technique, called Latent Semantic Indexing, was used. The method was applied in an industrial study. A number of requirements views were defined and experiments were carried out with different reconstruction settings for generating these views. Finally, we explored how these views can help the developers during the software development processSoftware Engineering DepartmentElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc

Tool support for distributed software engineering

Developing a software system in collaboration with other partners, and on different geographical locations is a big challenge for organizations. In this article we first discuss a system that automates build and test processes: SoftFab. This system has been successfully applied in practice in the context of multi-site projects. Then, we discuss a case where it was applied to a more challenging type of collaboration: a multi-partner development environment. Furthermore, we investigate the underlying concepts of SoftFab and use them to define a list of features for systems that support distributed software engineering.Software TechnologyElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc