Specification Of Functional Requirements Research Articles

Model‐based analysis and specification of functional requirements and tests for complex automotive systems

AbstractThe specification of requirements and tests are crucial activities in automotive development projects. However, due to the increasing complexity of automotive systems, practitioners fail to specify requirements and tests for distributed and evolving systems with complex interactions when following traditional development processes. To address this research gap, we propose a technique that starts with the early identification of validation concerns from a stakeholder perspective, which we use to systematically design tests that drive a scenario‐based modeling and analysis of system requirements. To ensure complete and consistent requirements and test specifications in a form that is required in automotive development projects, we develop a Model‐Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) methodology. This methodology supports system architects and test designers in the collaborative application of our technique and in maintaining a central system model, in order to automatically derive the required specifications. We evaluate our methodology by applying it at KOSTAL (Tier1 supplier) and within student projects as part of the masters program Embedded Systems Engineering. Our study corroborates that our methodology is applicable and improves existing requirements and test specification processes by supporting the integrated and stakeholder‐focused modeling of product and validation systems, where the early definition of stakeholder and validation concerns fosters a problem‐oriented, iterative and test‐driven requirements modeling.

FRSL: A Domain Specific Language to Specify Functional Requirements

In software development, to obtain a precise specification of the software system's functional requirements is significant to ensure the software quality as well as to automate the development. Use cases are an effective way to capture functional requirements, however, the use of ambiguous or vague language in the use case can lead to imprecision. It is essential to ensure that use case specifications are clear, concise, and complete to avoid imprecision in requirements. This paper aims to develop a domain specific language called FRSL to precisely specify use cases and to provide a basis for transformations to generate software artifacts from the use case specification. We define a FRSL metamodel to capture the technical domain of use cases for FRSL's abstract syntax, and then provides a textual concrete syntax for this language. We also define a formal operational semantics for FRSL by characterizing the execution of a FRSL specification as sequences of system snapshot transitions. This formal semantics on the one hand allows us to precisely explain the meaning of use cases and their relationships, on the other hand provides a basis for transformations from the use case specification. We implement a tool support for this language and perform an evaluation of its expressiveness in comparison with current use case specification languages. This work brings out (1)~a DSL to specify use cases that is defined based on a formal semantics of use cases; and (2)~a tool support realized as an Eclipse plugin for this DSL. The use case specification language FRSL would help precisely specify the system's functional requirements and bring more automation in the software development.

Geometrical Tolerances—Separate, Combined or Simultaneous?

The 14 geometrical tolerances defined in ISO 1101 are supplemented by the alphanumerical symbols defined in this standard and some other standards. The symbols CZ (combined zone), SZ (separate zones) and SIM (simultaneous requirement), which are crucial for the development of robust measuring programs for coordinate measuring machines, were introduced at different times or in different standards. It is shown that the symbol definitions are not always complete. Sometimes there are no univocal rules for their use, which, in some cases, leads to ambiguity in the specifications given by a designer. It is also pointed out that certain functional requirements can be controlled by different symbols, and it is not always clear if the indications are equivalent. This makes it difficult to understand and interpret a drawing by a metrologist and, thus, may lead to uncertainty in the assessment of product conformity regarding specifications. The identified ambiguities and problems in the specification of functional requirements are shown in several figures. Corrections and additions to current standards are proposed.

SEMGROMI-a semantic grouping algorithm to identifying microservices using semantic similarity of user stories.

Microservices is an architectural style for service-oriented distributed computing, and is being widely adopted in several domains, including autonomous vehicles, sensor networks, IoT systems, energy systems, telecommunications networks and telemedicine systems. When migrating a monolithic system to a microservices architecture, one of the key design problems is the "microservice granularity definition", i.e., deciding how many microservices are needed and allocating computations among them. This article describes a semantic grouping algorithm (SEMGROMI), a technique that takes user stories, a well-known functional requirements specification technique, and identifies number and scope of candidate microservices using semantic similarity of the user stories' textual description, while optimizing for low coupling, high cohesion, and high semantic similarity. Using the technique in four validation projects (two state-of-the-art projects and two industry projects), the proposed technique was compared with domain-driven design (DDD), the most frequent method used to identify microservices, and with a genetic algorithm previously proposed as part of the Microservices Backlog model. We found that SEMGROMI yields decompositions of user stories to microservices with high cohesion (from the semantic point of view) and low coupling, the complexity was reduced, also the communication between microservices and the estimated development time was decreased. Therefore, SEMGROMI is a viable option for the design and evaluation of microservices-based applications. The proposed semantic similarity-based technique (SEMGROMI) is part of the Microservices Backlog model, which allows to evaluate candidate microservices graphically and based on metrics to make design-time decisions about the architecture of the microservices-based application.

Development of the information system for navigation in modern university campus

According to the aims, the paper highlights algorithmic, interface and technological solutions for the development of the information system for navigation in university campus. In the process of searching for algorithmic and interface solutions, the peculiarities of the scientific and applied problem of indoor navigation were analyzed, as well as the capabilities of selected analogues of navigation systems implementing similar functions of this subject domain were evaluated. It was concluded that the analyzed analogues, despite their significant functionality, have the set of limitations. The specification of functional and non-functional requirements for the university navigation system was carried out, its architecture was defined as a set of interconnected modules, for the implementation of which appropriate interface and algorithmic solutions were elaborated and covered. The main stages of design and development of the university navigation system in the context of the elaborated solutions are highlighted. The functionality of the implemented system is characterized. It was established that during the design it was possible to overcome the main limitations inherent in similar systems implementing indoor navigation. The results of the system implementation in the educational practice of a national university are highlighted. Feedback from users received during the approbation testified the feasibility of developing and using the information system for navigation in university campus. The prospects for further work are formulated.

Sistem Penentuan Paket Penjualan dengan Algoritma FP-Growth Serta Metode Up dan Cross Selling

The Car Spare Part Shop is one of the Car Spare Parts Shops in Tangerang Regency. Based on interviews conducted with shop owners at the Car Spare Parts Store, it was stated that there was a decrease in sales income every month, so there was limited capital in purchasing car spare parts products which resulted in difficulties in choosing which car spare parts products to order. The purpose of this study is to create a system to process and utilize sales transaction data using the FP-Growth algorithm as well as up selling and cross selling methods which will later be used to sell car spare parts that are purchased simultaneously in a sales package determination system. The sales transaction data used is 6,674 transaction data for 1 year of operation of the Car Spare Part Shop (July 2021 - June 2022) with 30,956 records in Microsoft Excel format. The prototype system uses the Python framework flask and mysql database. Validation test results ensure that the software that has been made is in accordance with the expected functional requirements specifications. The results of the system quality test with ISO 9126 can be concluded in the criteria of Very Good with a value of 98.59%. With the results of the Functionality aspect of 99.25%, the results of the Reliability aspect of 98.13%, the results of the Usability aspect of 98.33% and the results of the Efficiency aspect of 98.66%. The results of system security testing with Acunetix and LOIC software have been carried out and the system is still stable and the system is declared safe when used.

Classification of Ultrasound Images with Convolutional Neural Networks in High-Performance Using IoT

This paper contains the specification of functional and nonfunctional requirements of a CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) model to identify masses in liver ultrasounds. A neural network model based on CNN was implemented, which performs the analysis of ultrasound images of the liver, identifying the presence of masses or not in them. CNN can be executed either on a machine with a CPU (Central Processing Unit) or in a high processing capacity environment that uses GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). The validation of the accuracy of the obtained results happens through the statistical technique of k-fold cross-validation using IoT. During the neural network training process, dense data necessitates a lot of computational resources. Because the number of network entries is precisely proportional to the number of pixels in the image, parallel processing for image processing is justified. It is important to remember that medical photos cannot be saved in a lossy format and must be identified with exceptional accuracy using IoT.

Development of an Application for Electronic Retrieval of Patient and Sample Information in Latin American Regions with a High Incidence of Gallbladder Cancer.

The European–Latin American Consortium towards Eradication of Preventable Gallbladder Cancer, EULAT Eradicate GBC, is collecting high-quality data and samples in four Latin American countries with high gallbladder cancer incidence (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru) to build a unique biorepository integrated into a tailored IT platform, to identify, validate, and functionally characterize new risk biomarkers, and to develop prediction models that integrate epidemiological and genetic–molecular risk factors. We decided to develop an application for electronic data collection to facilitate the retrieval of sociodemographic, clinical, lifestyle, dietary, and sample-related information from 15,000 Latin American study participants. The application EULAT eCollect will facilitate the work of study nurses, reduce time spent by participants, limit the use of paper and ink, minimize costs and errors associated with filling out written forms and subsequent digitisation, and support the monitoring of local recruitment rates and data quality. We describe in this article the design and implementation of the EULAT eCollect application, which started with the specification of functional and non-functional requirements, and ended with the implementation and validation of four separate application modules: Socio-Demographic Interview, Sample Information, Case Report Form, and Food-Frequency Questionnaire. We present both general and technical results, and our experience with the free and open-source software, Open Data Kit (ODK), which may be of interest for future related research projects, especially those on personalised cancer prevention carried out in low- and middle-income regions.

Model Architecture Software for Geospatial based Augmented Reality


 Software architecture is the basis of every software system and is very important used in software development. Augmented reality (AR) can make it easier for users to interact with virtual objects in a real environment through a camera display that displays 3D objects. In the tourism industry, augmented reality can be used to display the geographical location of tourist attractions, routes to locations, and 3D shapes of buildings that make it easier for users when looking for the nearest tourist destination. Designing an application in this case G-STAR requires several things, namely: Description of needs: Product perspective, product function, user characteristics, both developers and tourists. Specific needs: External interface requirements, namely user interfaces, hardware interfaces, software interfaces, communication interfaces. Software functionality requirements: Application flowchart. Functional requirements specification: Menu feature, function, camera AR function, tourist attraction function, Map function, info function, and guide function. Sequence diagrams. User interface/application prototyping.

A Survey on Formal Specification and Verification of Smart Mass Transit Railway Interlocking System

Nowadays interest in Smart Mass Transit Rail has grown-up to a large extent in a metropolitan area as the need for urban mobility has increased steadily. The reliability of software being used in such mass transit rail is crucial for us, specifically when software crashes may lead to catastrophic loss of human life and assets. For example, when we travel by metro it is essential for us that the interlocking system software controlling the metros are accurate so collisions and derailment are prevented. The reliability and safety of such interlocking systems are made on the precise functional requirements specification and verification respectively. Therefore, the precise functional requirements specification and verification of such interlocking systems represent a challenge in an active research area, so in this paper, we survey various articles in this field and discuss their consequences.

Detecting Intra-Conflicts in Non-Functional Requirements

When specifying user requirements, not only is it critical to ensure correct and unambiguous specification of functional requirements, but also that of Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs). A critical success factor in Requirements Engineering (RE) involves recognizing conflicts among NFRs specified by multiple stakeholders having differing concerns, priorities, and responsibilities. There indeed are numerous attempts made in the literature to resolve the conflicts between two NFRs, with the traditional view of considering the two NFRs different from each other e.g. security conflicting with the availability. In this paper, however, we propose that to introduce fine-grained conflict resolution – by also focusing on those situations where one NFR conflicts with another NFR of the same type. For ease of understanding, we propose to differentiate such conflicts by coining the term intra-conflicts. Thus, we propose fine-grained conflict resolution – by focusing on the notion of resolving conflicts between two NFRs of the same type. Needless to say, non-detection of any conflict between two NFRs – whether the NFRs are of the same type or not – at an early stage of RE, leads to higher costs for changes. The process of conflict resolution is essentially intuitive and hence is iterative. Our proposal hence is motivated by a view that differentiating the inter-conflicts with intra-conflicts, helps one in better focusing on the conflict resolution. We also propose an approach that allows a requirements analyst to semi-automatically identify intra-conflicts among NFRs at an early stage of RE using natural language processing, machine learning, and ontology-based semantic analysis. The controlled experiments, conducted on five publicly available datasets, achieve an average recall, precision, and F-measure of 0.57, 0.77, and 0.65 respectively.

Information Technologies in Complex Socio-Technical Systems Based on Functional Variability: A Case Study on HVAC Maintenance Work Orders

Information technology (IT) systems are known to promote improvements in quality and productivity of the work environments of complex and adaptive socio-technical systems that span hardware, community and software aspects. Systems development lies in eliciting and specifying requirements. However, current requirements of elicitation techniques are limited to correctly understanding the complexity involved in socio-technical systems. Therefore, approaches based on Resilience Engineering can provide concepts and methods for a better understanding of socio-technical systems’ functioning. This study aims to increase the application of the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) in the requirements elicitation process. Specifically, understanding variability and its role in enhancing the requirements elicitation and specification process for the design/redesign of IT systems in complex socio-technical systems deployed in building maintenance is the main goal. This study proposes the merging of human factors and ergonomics (HFE) and Resilience Engineering concepts with Software Engineering. A case study was performed with workers to produce requirements specifications for work order issuing activity. This case study indicates the usefulness of the proposed approach for the specification of functional requirements to redesign the IT system examined. FRAM enables inferences to be made from hidden or fuzzy situations that are often not expressed by system users or are not detected by the system designer.

Integrating machine learning with QFD for selecting functional requirements in construction automation

An important aspect of the conceptual design is at the customer requirement definition stage, where an optimal number of functional requirements are specified with the application of quality function deployment. To facilitate a systematic specification of functional requirements, state-of-the-art unsupervised machine learning techniques will be introduced in the feature selection of functional requirements. However, the scarcity of references on unsupervised feature selection in the literature reflects the difficulty associated with this topic. At the customer requirement definition phase, three techniques will be proposed for selecting functional requirements, namely: (a) principal component analysis, (b) forward orthogonal search, and (c) Kohonen self-organizing map neural network. These machine learning feature selection techniques address the limitations of current approaches in systematically determining the minimum functional requirements from the mapping of customer requirements in quality function deployment. When applied to the conceptual design of the transportable automated wood wall framing machine that is under development at the University of Alberta, the proposed feature selection techniques have been observed to be: (i) fast, (ii) amenable to small quality function deployment dataset, and (iii) adequate in realizing design objectives. The results presented in this paper can be easily extended to online determination of customer requirements and functional requirements, project management, contract management, and marketing.

Functional Requirements Specification of E-Tendering Using Natural Language Approach: Towards Innovative Business Transformation

Recently, business transformation towards the used of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a necessity toward rapid industries and the paradigm shifted to sustain business competitiveness. The holistic electronic approach is one of business innovations, especially in handling a lot of tender documentations and process in an electronic environment namely as e-Tendering. Unfortunately, the existing tender process transformation in the electronic approach is not properly followed certain standard and guideline, especially in establishing a good e-Tendering functional requirements specification to ensure the organizations would be in the best served. This is important to ensure a good e-Tendering system can be developed by e-Tendering developers based on a good e-Tendering functional requirement specifications. The requirements specification is a process of documenting user and system requirements. Commonly, user and system requirements should be clear, unambiguous, easy to understand, complete, and consistent. In practice, this is difficult to achieve due to interpretation of the requirements in different ways by stakeholders, which are often inherent conflicts and inconsistencies of the requirements. The implementation of the existing e-tendering still remains uncertainties, especially in defining the functional requirements of the e-tendering system. Therefore, this study aims to construct the e-Tendering functional requirement model using requirement template in natural language representation approach. Moreover the development of this system requirement model may provide a consistency to the requirements representation. The study uses UN/CEFACT Business Standard of the e-Tendering Business. The identified functional requirements are designed by using Requirement Template to ensure the reliability and understandability of requirements. Besides, the proposed functional requirements is constructed by adapting the natural language and verified by expert review approaches. As a result, this study proposed a functional requirements specification of the e-Tendering that contains detailed description which can be referred by software practitioners in developing a secure e-tendering system effectively.

TOLSYASUPI-EduMed: Development of Educational Media Using the Problem-Posing Learning Model for Basic Programming Subjects

The importance of expertise in the field of programming today makesVocational High Schools as early as a possible incorporate curriculum that canlearn skills in programming, which is then called basic programming subjects.These subjects are the initial foundation, to study other productive subjects thatmust be studied by students in the field of ICT expertise. However, in reality,students tend to dislike these subjects because they feel difficulties inunderstanding and learning them. Therefore, we try to present a solution toovercome this problem by developing basic programming educational media,especially in the material of branching control structures by embedding thesyntax of problem-posing learning models in the type of open-posing into theinteraction flow. This educational media is called TOLSYASUPI-EduMed. Theresearch and development method (R&D) was used as the main method in thisstudy. The model for system development uses ADDIE by adapting the R&Dmethod. A/B testing methods are used to validate the initial selection ofeducational media design. The form of design until the development stage isvalidated by media and material experts as much as 3 iterations, to ensure thatthe educational media can look for effects on the effectiveness of learning. Atotal of 36 students were involved in the use of this educational media.Evaluation of the use of educational media to determine aspects of satisfactionand usability using the Computer System Usability Questionnaire (CSUQ)method. The results of the study stated that 90.9% of experts agreed that VeryStrong to choose design B to continue at the advanced design, development,and implementation stages. The results of the validation of media and materialexperts state that it is feasible to use. Based on functional requirementsspecifications, all features function properly, and non-functionally 94.49% withpredicates Very Strong that end-users (students) are satisfied and feel theusefulness of this TOLSYASUPI-EduMed.

Non-Functional Norms Specification and Verification Approach for Normative Multi-agents Systems

Normative Multi-agent system (NMAS) forms a promising approach to software engineering for the development of autonomous systems, in norms-based environments. During the construction of these systems, different requirements can be considered: functional and non-functional requirement. Existing research in NMAS have mostly focused on the study of functional and behavioral requirements specification and verification, while Non-Functional Requirements (NFR) are crucial in the development of systems. They have dealt with the NFR implicitly through the capabilities of functional requirements. An important research issue refers to NFR in NMAS, i.e. how to specify and enforce NFR in NMAS that involves heterogeneous and autonomous agents. The NFR define constraints for the system and specify the qualities that a system can have, for example, security, performance, reliability, comfort, availability. Also, NFR might conflict among each other (for example, cost and quality, comfort and economy). A conflict between two NFR occurs when the fulfillment of one NFR violates another NFR. One of the main challenges currently faced in NMAS research is that of NFR specification and verification. In particular, how to specify and verify NFR in autonomous systems? In this paper, we propose a normative approach that allows the specification and verification of NFR for autonomous systems. To do this, we propose a new type of norms, called Non-Functional Norms (NFN). Indeed, our approach provides (i) a BNF normative language for specifying NFN, and (ii) a mechanism, based on Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) technique, for the detection and resolution of normative conflicts. Our normative approach is also illustrated by a case study describing Smart City Management System (SCMS).

Employing Qualitative Methods in Developing Functional Requirements for Electronic Records Management Research

This paper explores the justification of using a qualitative research method under the participatory paradigm. In order to develop the functional requirements of electronic court records management system in Malaysian Judiciary, the case study approach was chosen. The discussion begins by presenting the descriptions of methodology and methods employed, followed by the authors’ philosophical stance and the rationale for choosing a qualitative approach. Besides analysing the philosophical stance, the analysis of methods used in previous studies also provided insightful findings that helped ascertained the appropriate research method of the study. The development of twelve stages in developing the functional requirements specification based on the analysis of seven previous studies could be a reference material for other researchers. It is hoped that the knowledge that emerged when the functional requirements were developed could benefit readers and enhance their ability to apply as closely as possible to other studies or to make modifications for further research.

Seamless requirements

Popular notations for functional requirements specifications frequently ignore developers’ needs, target specific development models, or require translation of requirements into tests for verification; the results can give out-of-sync or downright incompatible artifacts. Seamless requirements, a new approach to specifying functional requirements, contributes to developers’ understanding of requirements and to software quality regardless of the process, while the process itself becomes lighter due to the absence of tests in the presence of formal verification. A development case illustrates these benefits, and a discussion compares seamless requirements to other approaches.

A Method for Verifying Non-Functional Requirements

In order to verify the correctness of functional requirements, we have been developing a verification method of the correctness of functional requirements specification using the Requirements Frame model. In this paper, we introduce a verification method of non-functional requirements specification, especially time-response requirements and usability requirements written with a natural language. We establish a verification method by extending the Requirements Frame model. We have also developed a prototype system based on the method using Java. The extended Requirements Frame model and the verification method will be illustrated with examples.

OFTIFEL PERSONALIZED NUTRITIONAL CALCULATOR

A food calculator for elderly people was elaborated by Centiv GmbH, an active partner in the European FP7 OPTIFEL Project, based on the functional requirement specifications and the existing recommendations for daily allowances across Europe, data which were synthetized and used to give aims in amounts per portion. The OPTIFEL Personalised Nutritional Calculator is the only available online tool which allows to determine on a personalised level the required nutrients for elderly people (65+). It has been developed mainly to support nursing homes providing best possible (personalised) nutrient enriched food to their patients. The European FP7 OPTIFEL project “Optimised Food Products for Elderly Populations” aims to develop innovative products based on vegetables and fruits for elderly populations to increase length of independence. The OPTIFEL Personalised Nutritional Calculator is recommended to be used by nursing homes.