Towards Human Values Traceability in Software: A Goal Modeling Approach

Abstract

Software has become an integral part of human life and while Software Engineering (SE) is aware of the values of security or privacy that relate to software quality, to date it is unable to account for the majority of the other human values (e.g., social justice, trust, freedom). Engineering human values into software is now emerging as an area of study but requires theoretical and methodological support from SE research and practice. A part of the challenge of integrating human values into software is related to tracing human values throughout the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). However, the number of studies in the domain of Human Values and SE is very limited. Moreover, there has been no previous study or practice performed on Human Values Traceability in SE. Therefore, this research study examines existing techniques and their applicability to trace human values in software. First, we explore the existing techniques that have the potential to trace human values in software. This exploration is extended from SE to other related domains such as Requirement Engineering, Software Design, Values in Design and Software Traceability. Identified techniques are then evaluated to identify the extent to which they can be used to trace human values in different phases of the SDLC. Our preliminary results found goal modeling and goal-centric traceability as promising techniques to initiate human values traceability in software. Therefore, we apply goal modeling to a case study to explore the ways this technique can be used and potentially improved to trace human values. Further, the improved technique will be evaluated through another case study.