Goal Oriented Requirements Elicitation Research Articles

Selection of goals with incomplete linguistic preference relations

In goal oriented requirements elicitation process (GOREP), the requirements of the stakeholders are refined and decomposed using AND/OR graph. Goal is a high level objective of a company which is refined and decomposed into sub-goals. After refinement and decomposition, a system may have several goals and it is not possible to implement all goals because of the time, budget, and other constraints of an organisation. It is a primarily research issue that how to select those goals that would be designed, implemented and tested during different phases of the software development process. On the basis of our review, we found that there is no support for the selection of goals in GOREP when preference relations are incomplete and the preferences of the decision-makers are represented by linguistic variables. Therefore, to address this research issue, we present a method for goal selection when linguistic preference relations are incomplete. Proposed method was applied to select the goals of the institute examination system.

Elicitation of software testing requirements from the selected set of software's requirements in GOREP

Requirements engineering (RE) is employed to elicit, model, and analyse the requirements of software. Software requirements elicitation is the first sub-process of RE; and it is used to identify the requirements of software according to the need of the stakeholders. In literature, we identify that goal oriented requirements elicitation process (GOREP) do not support the identification of testing requirements from the functional requirements (FR) of software in early phase of RE. Therefore, to tackle this research issue, we proposed a method for the identification of the testing requirements from the FR in GOREP. In real life applications, only those requirements are implemented and tested, which are selected by the stakeholders. So in the proposed method we used fuzzy based technique for FR selection on the basis of non-functional requirements (NFR). The 'canonical representation of multiplication operation' (CRMO) associated with L−1 R−1 inverse arithmetic principle and 'graded mean integration representation' (GMIR) based on 'triangular fuzzy numbers' (TFNs) have been applied for the selection of the FR. In our work, an Institute Examination System (IES) is used as a case study to explain the steps of the proposed method.

Organization Goal-Oriented Requirements Elicitation Process to Enhance Information System

<p><span>This paper introduces and proposes an approach in goal-oriented requirements elicitation process that using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), in information system enhancement process. KPIs can be used to control and reduce user requirements problems caused by personal interests of users in requirements elicitation process. An information system enhancement project for a distribution company has been used as a case study to demonstrate this approach. The case study shows that the requirements can be elicited from the organization goals and current information system condition rather than from user requirements. This approach also showed that KPIs have been able to control some user requirements that have difference point of view with high level stakeholder requirements. Compared with the previous research, IT goals and KPIs are more easily identified in the enhancement process rather than through development of a brand new information system.</span></p>

Identification of Requirements using Goal Oriented Requirements Elicitation Process

Goal Oriented Requirements Elicitation Process (GOREP) is used to identify the requirements of software using AND/OR graph. Requirements elicitation plays an important role for the identification of software’s functional and non-functional requirements. The objective of this paper is twofold; firstly, we classify different requirements elicitation techniques on the basis of different criterion like traditional, cognitive, collaborative, and contextual techniques; and secondly, we integrate mind map with those nodes of AND/OR that we want to further explore at the time of requirements elicitation process. Finally, the utilization of integrating the mind map with AND/OR graph is demonstrated with the help of an example.

A fuzzy based approach for the selection of goals in goal oriented requirements elicitation process

Goal selection in goal oriented requirements elicitation process (GOREP) like KAOS, i*, AGORA etc., is a multi-criteria decision making problem. In literature, we identify that existing GOREP do not support to choose and adopt a goal out of the alternatives of the decomposed goals when multi-criteria decision making approaches are used and stakeholders’ preferences are in the form of linguistic variables. Therefore, this paper presents a fuzzy based approach to address the above issue by using α-level weighted F-preference relation in group decision making process. Finally, the utilization of the proposed approach is demonstrated with the help of an example.

Applying fuzzy preference relation for requirements prioritization in goal oriented requirements elicitation process

Goal oriented requirements elicitation processes are used to identify the requirements of software according to the need of stakeholders. A system may have thousands of requirements and it is difficult to prioritize such a large number of requirements when several stakeholders participate in requirements elicitation process. In literature, we identify that existing goal oriented requirements elicitation processes like KAOS, i*, AGORA do not support to prioritize the requirements when stakeholder’s preferences are in the form of linguistic variable and multi-criteria decision making approach is used in requirements elicitation process. Therefore, to address this issue, we present a method for prioritization of requirements using fuzzy based approach in goal oriented requirements elicitation process by combining α-level weighted F-preference relation and extent fuzzy analytic hierarchy process in group decision making process; and then we use binary tree sort method to get the prioritized list of requirements. Finally, the utilization of the proposed approach is demonstrated with the help of an example.

Modeling Business Goal for Business/it Alignment Using Requirements Engineering

It is widely accepted that sustaining Business and Information Technology (IT) alignment is a complex task, due to the lack of appropriate alignment methodologies, rapid changes in running business processes and insufficient IT techniques to cope with such changes. One way of achieving successful alignment is the development of an IT system which meets business expectations. This is only possible if IT analysts take the organizational environment into account prior to implementing the system. This paper presents an organizational goal-oriented requirements elicitation approach which will allow the IT department to better understand the business goals of the organization to enable them to develop an IT system which will meet business expectations. It also describes what kind of goal modelling and human input is required in order to implement the “automatic modelling IT infrastructure” methodology. A process of order management in an automobile company has been used as a case study to validate the approach.

Improving the detection of requirements discordances among stakeholders

This paper introduces a technique to identify requirements discordances among stakeholders. This technique is validated in experiments. An extended version of the goal-oriented requirements elicitation method, named attributed goal-oriented analysis (AGORA), and its supporting tool are used. Two types of requirements discordances among stakeholders are defined: the first arises from the different interpretations by the stakeholders and the second is the result of different evaluations of preferences. Discordances are detected by the preference matrices in AGORA. Each preference matrix represents both preferences of each stakeholder and the estimated preferences of other stakeholders. A supporting tool for the AGORA method was developed. This tool is a groupware that seamlessly combines face-to-face meetings for goal elicitation and distributed individual sessions for scoring preference values. The experimental results showed that the proposed classification of discordances was sound and that the occurrences of the requirements discordances could be detected by preference matrices.