On the interplay between consistency, completeness, and correctness in requirements evolution

Abstract

The initial expression of requirements for a computer-based system is often informal and possibly vague. Requirements engineers need to examine this often incomplete and inconsistent brief expression of needs. Based on the available knowledge and expertise, assumptions are made and conclusions are deduced to transform this 'rough sketch' into more complete, consistent, and hence correct requirements. This paper addresses the question of how to characterize these properties in an evolutionary framework, and what relationships link these properties to a customer's view of correctness. Moreover, we describe in rigorous terms the different kinds of validation checks that must be performed on different parts of a requirements specification in order to ensure that errors (i.e. cases of inconsistency and incompleteness) are detected and marked as such, leading to better quality requirements. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Establishing requirements for End-user Service Composition tools

“…There are three main properties of requirements against which we can evaluate them: completeness, correctness, and consistency [28].…”

“…Completeness is an important property of the requirements for a system given that incompleteness of requirements has been identified as one of the most common causes of system failures and accidents [28]. It is also one of the more difficult problems to detect in a requirements specification [28].…”

“…It is also one of the more difficult problems to detect in a requirements specification [28]. Ensuring requirements completeness can be done in a number of ways including: model-based evaluation, individual evaluation, requirements metadata, comparison with repositories, and creation of a specification document [29].…”

Semantics of trace relations in requirements models for consistency checking and inferencing

“…Zowghi et al [54,55] propose a logical framework for modeling and reasoning about the evolution of requirements. They characterize the properties correctness, completeness, and consistency of requirements in an evolutionary framework.…”

Interactive requirements validation for reactive systems through virtual requirements prototype

“…Lack of adequate specifications is often due to incompleteness, ambiguities [1], and inconsistencies [19] that commonly occur in a set of natural language (NL) requirements. These errors are hard to expose, and various means of exposing them have been utilized in the industry [2].…”