Querying complex requirements

ABSTRACT

For large and complex projects the structure of requirements becomes a factor of utmost importance. This paper suggests a small set of primitive constructs that allow requirements to be expressed and structured in various views. Among ways to increase the quality of requirements this paper considers (i) the network metaphor and (ii) conceptual modeling, which includes requirements crystallization activity. Then query types that follow the suggested meta-model are introduced and discussed. These queries operate at several levels: text, element, diagram, and model. This paper has a methodological flavor at two levels: First, it suggests a specific way of developing requirements; second, it aims to demonstrate the relationship between the meta-model we choose and the set of query types we build for it. A visual editor VR (Visual Requirements) has been developed to support the approach and queries described here. Among other applications, VR has been used in the maintenance context to estimate, on the base of use cases models, the size of more than a hundred of software initiatives, including multi-million-dollar projects.

REFERENCES

• 1: Sergey Diev, Structuring complex requirements, ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, v.32 n.2, March 2007 [doi>10.1145/1234741.1234755]
• 2: Sergey Diev, Requirements development as a modeling activity, ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, v.32 n.2, March 2007 [doi>10.1145/1234741.1234756]
• 3: Sergey Diev, Software estimation in the maintenance context, ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, v.31 n.2, March 2006 [doi>10.1145/1118537.1118540]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.1 Requirements/Specifications

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.2 Design Tools and Techniques

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Measurement, Performance

Keywords:
VR, complex requirements, concept, conceptual model, content-diagram, network metaphor, query, requirements crystallization, requirements development, requirements set, requirements structure, use case model, visual editor, visual requirements, visual use case