Semi-Automatized Assessment of Requirement Interrelations

Abstract

Changing requirements have a broad impact on product development processes. In this paper, a novel approach towards structuring requirements is proposed. Based on a requirements list, interrelations of requirements are assessed semi-automatically by a rule basis. Here, generic interrelations funded on either physical fundamentals or working principles are recorded. By this approach, requirements structure matrices are derived semi-automatically. Combined with selecting critical requirements based on structured criterions, iterations due to changing requirements will be reduced.

Method for Analysing Requirement Change Propagation based on a Modified Pagerank Algorithm

“…propagation Based on the Design Structure Matrix (DSM) proposed by Eppinger and Browning (Eppinger and Browning, 2012;Browning, 2001), other approaches addressing change propagation between either components or their requirements have been presented by various authors (see (Clarkson et al, 2004;Eben and Lindemann, 2010;Gräßler et al, 2018b)). Taking into account the DSM representing the relationship of subsystems or components in a square matrix, the impact and propagation of changes of system elements in a system is addressed by the Change Prediction Method (CPM) proposed by Clarkson et al (Clarkson et al, 2004).…”

“…Change propagation is assessed by analysing reachable nodes of a single requirement (Eben and Lindemann, 2010). Another matrix-based approach towards change propagation was presented by Gräßler et al (Gräßler et al, 2018a;Gräßler et al, 2018b). Here, requirement interrelations are assessed in the Requirements Structure Matrix, a derivative of the DSM.…”

“…Here, requirement interrelations are assessed in the Requirements Structure Matrix, a derivative of the DSM. To reduce efforts compared to the approach of Eben and Lindemann, the RSM can be derived semi-automatically by applying a rule set (Gräßler et al, 2018b). The identification of critical requirements based on interdependencies is combined with a risk indication per requirement.…”

Role Model for Systems Engineering Application

“…This role is based on the following references: (Walden, 2007;INCOSE UK, 2010;BKCASE Editorial Board, 2017;NASA, 2009;Sheard, 1996;INCOSE, 2018;Gräßler et al, 2018e, 2018e;Gräßler et al, 2018c;Walden et al, 2015). The Requirements Engineer is concerned about one or several requirements from all stages (stakeholder needs, stakeholder requirements, system requirements) of a Systems Engineering project.…”

“…It is part of this role to ensure, that all requirements are consistent with the higher-level and lower-level requirements (Walden, 2007). This is very challenging in case of changes affecting the overall system or even subsystems (Gräßler et al, 2018e). The Requirements Engineer needs to assess the change impact and identify all requirements that correspondingly need to be modified (Gräßler et al, 2018d).…”