i*-prefer: optimizing requirements elicitation process based on actor preferences

ABSTRACT

Many software projects fail due to ill-defined requirements, or mismatch between system design and the preferences of involved actors in the environment. The quality and efficiency of requirements elicitation determines the ultimate quality of the system. In this paper, we propose to take the preferences of actors into consideration when making design decisions. Furthermore, we use such preference information to help optimize the elicitation process. The requirements model is represented as an extension to the i* framework, called i*-prefer. Major extension points are: (1) For each softgoal of an actor, a utility value is computed to depict actor's preferences; (2) A quantitative measurement is introduced to quantify the contribution of different design alternatives to each softgoal; (3) An evaluation process is used to compare the overall impact of different design strategies. A simplified seminar planning example is used to illustrate the proposed approach.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Keywords:
optimization, preference elicitation, requirement elicitation