Improving Reliability of Spectrum Analysis for Software Quality Requirements Using TCM

Abstract

SUMMARYQuality requirements are scattered over a requirements specification, thus it is hard to measure and trace such quality requirements to validate the specification against stakeholders' needs. We proposed a technique called "spectrum analysis for quality requirements" which enabled analysts to sort a requirements specification to measure and track quality requirements in the specification. In the same way as a spectrum in optics, a quality spectrum of a specification shows a quantitative feature of the specification with respect to quality. Therefore, we can compare a specification of a system to another one with respect to quality. As a result, we can validate such a specification because we can check whether the specification has common quality features and know its specific features against specifications of existing similar systems. However, our first spectrum analysis for quality requirements required a lot of effort and knowledge of a problem domain and it was hard to reuse such knowledge to reduce the effort. We thus introduce domain knowledge called term-characteristic map (TCM) to reuse the knowledge for our quality spectrum analysis. Through several experiments, we evaluate our spectrum analysis, and main finding are as follows. First, we confirmed specifications of similar systems have similar quality spectra. Second, results of spectrum analysis using TCM are objective, i.e., different analysts can generate almost the same spectra when they analyze the same specification.

Finding Incorrect and Missing Quality Requirements Definitions Using Requirements Frame

“…We assume specifications of similar systems have similar spectrum of quality requirements, and specifications of different kinds of systems have different spectra. We have confirmed this assumption through our experi- ments [3], [12]. Assume similar Web based shopping systems.…”

“…We thus assume that a count of functional requirements qualified by a quality requirement shows the importance of the quality requirement if all functional requirements are equally important. We have validated this assumption through five published case studies [3] and two unpublished case studies † † . In the case of an example of Fig.…”

“…Therefore, it is not easy to confirm whether quality requirements are defined enough. We thus proposed a technique called spectrum analysis for software quality requirements to help us to confirm them [3], [12]. As shown in the name of this technique, it is inspired by spectrum analysis in optics where all waves can consist of several different canonical waves (sine waves).…”

“…a) E-mail: kaiya@shinshu-u.ac.jp DOI: 10.1587/transinf.E95.D.1031 ment and traceability of quality requirements, and proposed a technique called "spectrum analysis for quality requirements" [3]. By using this technique, we can identify what kinds of quality requirements are stated in a requirements specification.…”

Toward the Decision Tree for Inferring Requirements Maturation Types

“…In our future work, our evaluation process will be supported by the work of Kaiya et al, who developed a tool for analyzing requirements quality based on the requirements statements with a termcharacteristic map [33].…”