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| 2. |
- Abbas, Muhammad, et al.
(författare)
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On the relationship between similar requirements and similar software : A case study in the railway domain
- 2023
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Ingår i: Requirements Engineering. - : Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. - 0947-3602 .- 1432-010X. ; 28, s. 23-47
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recommender systems for requirements are typically built on the assumption that similar requirements can be used as proxies to retrieve similar software. When a stakeholder proposes a new requirement, natural language processing (NLP)-based similarity metrics can be exploited to retrieve existing requirements, and in turn, identify previously developed code. Several NLP approaches for similarity computation between requirements are available. However, there is little empirical evidence on their effectiveness for code retrieval. This study compares different NLP approaches, from lexical ones to semantic, deep-learning techniques, and correlates the similarity among requirements with the similarity of their associated software. The evaluation is conducted on real-world requirements from two industrial projects from a railway company. Specifically, the most similar pairs of requirements across two industrial projects are automatically identified using six language models. Then, the trace links between requirements and software are used to identify the software pairs associated with each requirements pair. The software similarity between pairs is then automatically computed with JPLag. Finally, the correlation between requirements similarity and software similarity is evaluated to see which language model shows the highest correlation and is thus more appropriate for code retrieval. In addition, we perform a focus group with members of the company to collect qualitative data. Results show a moderately positive correlation between requirements similarity and software similarity, with the pre-trained deep learning-based BERT language model with preprocessing outperforming the other models. Practitioners confirm that requirements similarity is generally regarded as a proxy for software similarity. However, they also highlight that additional aspect comes into play when deciding software reuse, e.g., domain/project knowledge, information coming from test cases, and trace links. Our work is among the first ones to explore the relationship between requirements and software similarity from a quantitative and qualitative standpoint. This can be useful not only in recommender systems but also in other requirements engineering tasks in which similarity computation is relevant, such as tracing and change impact analysis.
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| 3. |
- Abdeen, Waleed, et al.
(författare)
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An approach for performance requirements verification and test environments generation
- 2023
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Ingår i: Requirements Engineering. - : Springer. - 0947-3602 .- 1432-010X. ; 28:1, s. 117-144
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Model-based testing (MBT) is a method that supports the design and execution of test cases by models that specify theintended behaviors of a system under test. While systematic literature reviews on MBT in general exist, the state of the arton modeling and testing performance requirements has seen much less attention. Therefore, we conducted a systematic map-ping study on model-based performance testing. Then, we studied natural language software requirements specificationsin order to understand which and how performance requirements are typically specified. Since none of the identified MBTtechniques supported a major benefit of modeling, namely identifying faults in requirements specifications, we developed thePerformance Requirements verificatiOn and Test EnvironmentS generaTion approach (PRO-TEST). Finally, we evaluatedPRO-TEST on 149 requirements specifications. We found and analyzed 57 primary studies from the systematic mappingstudy and extracted 50 performance requirements models. However, those models don’t achieve the goals of MBT, whichare validating requirements, ensuring their testability, and generating the minimum required test cases. We analyzed 77 Soft-ware Requirements Specification (SRS) documents, extracted 149 performance requirements from those SRS, and illustratethat with PRO-TEST we can model performance requirements, find issues in those requirements and detect missing ones.We detected three not-quantifiable requirements, 43 not-quantified requirements, and 180 underspecified parameters in the149 modeled performance requirements. Furthermore, we generated 96 test environments from those models. By modelingperformance requirements with PRO-TEST, we can identify issues in the requirements related to their ambiguity, measur-ability, and completeness. Additionally, it allows to generate parameters for test environments
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| 4. |
- Alenljung, Beatrice, et al.
(författare)
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Portraying the practice of decision-making in requirements engineering : a case of large scale bespoke development
- 2008
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Ingår i: Requirements Engineering. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0947-3602 .- 1432-010X. ; 13:4, s. 257-279
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Complex decision-making is a prominent aspect of requirements engineering (RE) and the need for improved decision support for RE decision-makers has been identified by a number of authors in the research literature. A first step toward better decision support in requirements engineering is to understand multifaceted decision situations of decision-makers. In this paper, the focus is on RE decision-making in large scale bespoke development. The decision situation of RE decision-makers on a subsystem level has been studied at a systems engineering company and is depicted in this paper. These situations are described in terms of, e.g., RE decision matters, RE decision-making activities, and RE decision processes. Factors that affect RE decision-makers are also identified.
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| 5. |
- Ambreen, T., et al.
(författare)
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Empirical research in requirements engineering : trends and opportunities
- 2018
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Ingår i: Requirements Engineering. - : Springer London. - 0947-3602 .- 1432-010X. ; 23:1, s. 63-95
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Requirements engineering (RE) being a foundation of software development has gained a great recognition in the recent era of prevailing software industry. A number of journals and conferences have published a great amount of RE research in terms of various tools, techniques, methods, and frameworks, with a variety of processes applicable in different software development domains. The plethora of empirical RE research needs to be synthesized to identify trends and future research directions. To represent a state-of-the-art of requirements engineering, along with various trends and opportunities of empirical RE research, we conducted a systematic mapping study to synthesize the empirical work done in RE. We used four major databases IEEE, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink and ACM and Identified 270 primary studies till the year 2012. An analysis of the data extracted from primary studies shows that the empirical research work in RE is on the increase since the year 2000. The requirements elicitation with 22 % of the total studies, requirements analysis with 19 % and RE process with 17 % are the major focus areas of empirical RE research. Non-functional requirements were found to be the most researched emerging area. The empirical work in the sub-area of requirements validation and verification is little and has a decreasing trend. The majority of the studies (50 %) used a case study research method followed by experiments (28 %), whereas the experience reports are few (6 %). A common trend in almost all RE sub-areas is about proposing new interventions. The leading intervention types are guidelines, techniques and processes. The interest in RE empirical research is on the rise as whole. However, requirements validation and verification area, despite its recognized importance, lacks empirical research at present. Furthermore, requirements evolution and privacy requirements also have little empirical research. These RE sub-areas need the attention of researchers for more empirical research. At present, the focus of empirical RE research is more about proposing new interventions. In future, there is a need to replicate existing studies as well to evaluate the RE interventions in more real contexts and scenarios. The practitioners’ involvement in RE empirical research needs to be increased so that they share their experiences of using different RE interventions and also inform us about the current requirements-related challenges and issues that they face in their work. © 2016 Springer-Verlag London
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| 6. |
- Berntsson Svensson, Richard, 1978, et al.
(författare)
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Is role playing in Requirements Engineering Education increasing learning outcome?
- 2017
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Ingår i: Requirements Engineering. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0947-3602 .- 1432-010X. ; 22:4, s. 475-489
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Requirements Engineering has attracted a great deal of attention from researchers and practitioners in recent years. This increasing interest requires academia to provide students with a solid foundation in the subject matter. In Requirements Engineering Education (REE), it is important to cover three fundamental topics: traditional analysis and modeling skills, interviewing skills for requirements elicitation, and writing skills for specifying requirements. REE papers report about using role playing as a pedagogical tool; however, there is a surprising lack of empirical evidence on its utility. In this paper we investigate whether a higher grade in a role playing project have an effect on students' score in an individual written exam in a Requirements Engineering course. Data are collected from 412 students between the years of 2007 and 2014 at Lund University and Chalmers | University of Gothenburg. The results show that students who received a higher grade in the role playing project scored statistically significant higher in the written exam compared to the students with a lower role playing project grade.
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| 7. |
- Berntsson Svensson, Richard, et al.
(författare)
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Setting quality targets for coming releases with QUPER - an industrial case study
- 2012
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Ingår i: Requirements Engineering. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0947-3602 .- 1432-010X. ; 17:4, s. 283-298
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Quality requirements play a critical role in driving architectural design and are an important issue in software development. Therefore, quality requirements need to be considered, specified, and quantified early during system analysis and not later in the development phase in an ad-hoc fashion. This paper presents the quality performance model that estimates quality targets in relation to market expectations as a basis for the architecting of quality requirements. The purpose of the model is to provide concepts for qualitative reasoning of quality levels in the decision-making of setting actual targets of quality requirements for coming releases of the product. The quality performance model is evaluated at one case company, using a market-driven development approach, in the electronic payment-processing domain. The results show that the model is useful for supporting early decisionmaking in, e.g., release planning of quality requirements
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| 8. |
- Bjarnason, Elizabeth, et al.
(författare)
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The role of distances in requirements communication: a case study
- 2017
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Ingår i: Requirements Engineering. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0947-3602 .- 1432-010X. ; 22, s. 1-26
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Requirements communication plays a vital role in development projects in coordinating the customers, the business roles and the software engineers. Communication gaps represent a significant source of project failures and overruns. For example, misunderstood or uncommunicated requirements can lead to software that does not meet the customers’ requirements, and subsequent low number of sales or additional cost required to redo the implementation. We propose that requirements engineering (RE) distance measures are useful for locating gaps in requirements communication and for improving on development practice. In this paper, we present a case study of one software development project to evaluate this proposition. Thirteen RE distances were measured including geographical and cognitive distances between project members, and semantic distances between requirements and testing artefacts. The findings confirm that RE distances impact requirements communication and project coordination. Furthermore, the concept of distances was found to enable constructive group reflection on communication gaps and improvements to development practices. The insights reported in this paper can provide practitioners with an increased awareness of distances and their impact. Furthermore, the results provide a stepping stone for further research into RE distances and methods for improving on software development processes and practices.
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| 9. |
- Carlshamre, Pär
(författare)
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Release Planning in Market-Driven Software Product Development : Provoking an Understanding
- 2002
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Ingår i: Requirements Engineering. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0947-3602 .- 1432-010X. ; 7:3, s. 139-151
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In market-driven software development, release planning is one of the most critical tasks. Selecting a subset of requirements for realisation in a certain release is as complex as it is important for the success of a software product. Despite this, the literature provides little information on how release planning is done in practice. We designed, implemented and evaluated a support tool for release planning as a means for provoking a rich understanding of the task of release planning. The tool utilises a selection algorithm which, based on value, resource estimate and interdependencies, presents a number of valid and good release suggestions. The initial attempt at supporting release planning proved to be based on an overly simplistic and structuralistic view. The results provide ample evidence that the task could be characterised as a wicked problem, which in turn has several implications for the support needed. Although the provotype could indeed support the planner, in its current version it has several serious shortcomings related to the degree of interactivity, underlying models, presentation of information and general appearance. A rich description of the task of release planning is provided. Based on these findings, a list of design implications is proposed, which is intended to guide the future design of a support tool for release planning.
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| 10. |
- Duboc, Leticia, et al.
(författare)
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Requirements engineering for sustainability: an awareness framework for designing software systems for a better tomorrow
- 2020
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Ingår i: Requirements Engineering. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0947-3602 .- 1432-010X. ; 25:4, s. 469-492
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Integrating novel software systems in our society, economy and environment can have far-reaching effects. As a result, software systems should be designed in such a way as to maintain or improve the sustainability of their intended socio-technical systems. However, a paradigm shift is required to raise awareness of software professionals on the potential sustainability effects of software systems. While Requirements Engineering is considered the key for driving this change, requirements engineers lack the knowledge, experience and methodological support for acting as facilitators for a broader discussion on sustainability effects. This paper presents a question-based framework for raising awareness of the potential effects of software systems on sustainability, as the first step towards enabling the required paradigm shift. An evaluation study of the framework was conducted with four groups of computer science students. The results of the study indicate that the framework is applicable to different types of systems and helps to facilitate discussions about the potential effects that software systems could have on sustainability.
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