Using Non-Functional Requirements to Identify Cross-Cutting Concerns

Abstract

Smart Home systems control a multitude of automated devices and bring together different types of stakeholders. From software perspective, this rises architecture and design challenges, as different stakeholder viewpoints are sources of different requirements. Apart from the functional requirements available in the initial product description, non-functional requirements and constrains are difficult to capture, and in addition, they are the main generator of cross-cutting requirements. The process presented here identifies cross-cutting concerns, as architectural aspects cross-cut quality attributes. Using a metric, we calculate cross-cutting coefficients, based on matching values mapped from non-functional requirements. The process generates a space cross-cutting matrix, which quantifies cross-cutting coefficients for architectural aspects and system quality attributes. The information generated about the cross-cutting concerns can be used in planning the software and system development, and in decisions related to the system architecture, design patterns.