Non-functional Requirements Research Articles

Pengembangan Sistem Rekomendasi Melalui Pendekatan Web Semantik dan Simple Additive Weighting (SAW)

Indonesia is one of the countries that have the largest growth after China and India in the use of mobile phones. eMarkerter published that the number of mobile phone users in Indonesia increased by 37.1% from 2016 to 2019 and in 2019 it reached 92 million users. This study aims to develop a mobile phone recommendation system with a semantic web approach using the Simple Additive Weighting Method (SAW). The prototype system available online at http://mobile.oss.web.id that has 3 main features, namely searching, browsing, and recommendation features. The process of searching, browsing, and recommending the system using information that has been stored in Ontology. Meanwhile, the recommendation mechanism uses the SAW method as a method of calculating the weight of each cellphone and the weight of the criteria. Evaluation of functional requirements system using Black-Box testing approach, while evaluation of non-functional requirement systems using Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) approach by involving 32 respondents. The final result of the evaluation shows that the system functionality is running well as expected. Moreover, the evaluation of the non-functionality of the system showed that on average the respondents involved in the study agreed that the system developed was useful and easy to use

Extended UTAUT Model for Mobile Learning Adoption Studies

Mobile learning has seen tremendous growth in recent years, and the future seems promising with the mass integration of mobile devices in the teaching and learning process. The adoption of mobile learning technology is one of the widely researched areas. In this paper, the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model was extended to study mobile learning adoption. Seventy-seven different mobile learning adoption studies were analyzed, and seven new constructs (interaction, self-efficacy, innovation and motivation, satisfaction, attitude, literacy and readiness, and non-functional requirements) were added to the UTAUT model. Validation of the extended model was conducted, and the results indicate that it can positively contribute to the study of mobile learning adoption.

Developing a Secure and Trusted E-Voting System for Libyan Elections

Purpose: The aim of this study is to identify the issues and problems in the current Libyan voting system, and to develop a secure e-voting prototype system associated with the Libyan electoral system and the laws and legislation governing. Theoretical framework: E-voting systems allow greater participation of eligible voters to cast their vote remotely or any location that the voter could be during election. Design/methodology/approach: This study used mixed methodology. A qualitative method via interview would be used to collect qualitative data from citizens and election staff to determine functionalities and features of the proposed system. Using Semi-structured interviews with ten eligible voters, election officials. While a quantitative study conducted to evaluate users and elections of officials to determine how the systems fulfils the requirements and their expectations, to determine if the prototype proposed system offers practical solution to the Libyan voters and if the functionalities of the system fulfil the requirement gathered at the problem definition stage. The second prototype was regarded as meeting the key functional and non-functional requirement and ease of use criteria by users. After fixing the concerns found during the first prototype's evaluation in terms of the requirement criteria. The criterion for ease of use were met. Findings: As a result, 87% of the evaluators indicated that they would adopt the system if it was introduced. Whereas 87% of the evaluators suggested that they would recommend the E-Voting system to their friends, colleagues, and Libyan Election Council. Research, Practical & Social implications: Following the trial of the second prototype, the evaluators proposed that the Libyan E-Voting System (L-EVS) would assist them enable them to exercise their election rights. Originality/value: Concerns and issues from previous political elections have spawned over numerous studies regarding voter confidentiality, voting security, and voting accuracy.

Leveraging IoT-Aware Technologies and AI Techniques for Real-Time Critical Healthcare Applications.

Personalised healthcare has seen significant improvements due to the introduction of health monitoring technologies that allow wearable devices to unintrusively monitor physiological parameters such as heart health, blood pressure, sleep patterns, and blood glucose levels, among others. Additionally, utilising advanced sensing technologies based on flexible and innovative biocompatible materials in wearable devices allows high accuracy and precision measurement of biological signals. Furthermore, applying real-time Machine Learning algorithms to highly accurate physiological parameters allows precise identification of unusual patterns in the data to provide health event predictions and warnings for timely intervention. However, in the predominantly adopted architectures, health event predictions based on Machine Learning are typically obtained by leveraging Cloud infrastructures characterised by shortcomings such as delayed response times and privacy issues. Fortunately, recent works highlight that a new paradigm based on Edge Computing technologies and on-device Artificial Intelligence significantly improve the latency and privacy issues. Applying this new paradigm to personalised healthcare architectures can significantly improve their efficiency and efficacy. Therefore, this paper reviews existing IoT healthcare architectures that utilise wearable devices and subsequently presents a scalable and modular system architecture to leverage emerging technologies to solve identified shortcomings. The defined architecture includes ultrathin, skin-compatible, flexible, high precision piezoelectric sensors, low-cost communication technologies, on-device intelligence, Edge Intelligence, and Edge Computing technologies. To provide development guidelines and define a consistent reference architecture for improved scalable wearable IoT-based critical healthcare architectures, this manuscript outlines the essential functional and non-functional requirements based on deductions from existing architectures and emerging technology trends. The presented system architecture can be applied to many scenarios, including ambient assisted living, where continuous surveillance and issuance of timely warnings can afford independence to the elderly and chronically ill. We conclude that the distribution and modularity of architecture layers, local AI-based elaboration, and data packaging consistency are the more essential functional requirements for critical healthcare application use cases. We also identify fast response time, utility, comfort, and low cost as the essential non-functional requirements for the defined system architecture.

The perspective of Brazilian software developers on data privacy

Context:Maintaining the privacy of user data is a concern in software development to satisfy customer needs or to comply with privacy laws. Recent studies have shown that software development approaches still neglect non-functional requirements, including privacy. Concern about privacy may increase in the period between when a privacy law is initially announced and when it is passed into law. During this period, companies will be challenged to comply with the new law. Research has shown that many developers do not have sufficient knowledge to develop privacy-preserving software systems. Objective:We investigate the level of knowledge and understanding that developers possess regarding privacy. We explore the personal, behavioural, and external environmental factors affecting a developer’s decision-making regarding privacy requirements. Methods:We replicated a study by means of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with thirteen practitioners at six companies. Our data analysis is based on the principles of ‘grounded theory codification’. Results:We identified nine personal factors, five behavioural factors, and seven external environment factors that are relevant to how software developers make decisions regarding. Conclusion:Our identification of factors that influence the development of privacy-preserving software systems can be seen as a contribution to the specification of effective methods for securing privacy.

A comparative study on vectorization methods for non-functional requirements classification

Identifying non-functional requirements (NFRs) and their categories at the early phase is crucial for analysts to design software systems and recognize constraints. Automatic non-functional requirements classification methods have been studied for reducing the costs of that labor-intensive task. Our previous study focused on the differences among vectorization methods that converted requirements written in natural language into numerical vectors for classification. It had some limitations regarding the number of datasets used, the types of vectorization methods supporting pre-trained data, and the performance evaluation procedure.

Key performance indicators used to measure the adherence to the iterative software delivery model and policies

This paper analyzes the Agile metrics embedded in the widely adopted issue tracking tools and used by agile teams to deliver software products. Organizations face challenges when they are required to measure the performance of all the teams operating within the company to provide a holistic view of the software delivery performance at a higher level. A new set of key performance indicators (KPIs) is introduced that can help software companies standardize their delivery across the organization and provide an overview of the software delivery performance that can serve as an insight for the top management teams. The new metrics are applied to a project as part of a case study. The conclusions highlight that the metrics provided by the issue tracking systems do not provide insights into the non-functional requirements of the software products, the methodology applied during the delivery, and the quality of each increment produced. The proposed set of KPIs addresses these shortcomings.

A Framework Architecture Proposal Focused on Industry Foundation Classes in the Context of BIM Methodology: Towards an Open Source Platform

The use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) methodology has expanded in recent years. This increase is due to the establishment of an open standard of interoperability, called “OPEN BIM”, by large, multinational software companies in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry. Open BIM uses the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) standard as the primary tool for information exchange. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) has been conducted on BIM and IFC, in which a gap in the development of studies on open source applications that use IFC as their main data structure has been identified. Thus, a framework architecture for general purpose BIM systems has been proposed, based on the IFC standard developed by buildinSMART. It has been sought to identify the key features and the functionalities of the main commercial software programs that currently exist on the market, based on the SLR and the current state of the art. In addition, the functional and non-functional requirements, which underpinned a component diagram (UML) of a framework architecture that represents the computer systems to be implemented in the BIM platform, and that are strongly linked to IFC, towards an open source platform, have been defined. A prototype of an open source software “Windows x Unity”, which, after discussing with 114 professionals of engineering and architecture areas, has been considered a promising tool, has been developed.

GRL goal analysis using zero-sum game theory

In Requirements Engineering (RE), goal models are used to represent stakeholder objectives, which are also known as system requirements or system goals. Stakeholder requirements are of two types: functional requirements and non-functional requirements. Goal models are analysed to find out suitable functional requirements amongst ensemble of all functional requirements. RE literature has addressed both qualitative and quantitative methods for performing goal analysis. Recently, operation research techniques have been used for performing optimal goal analysis. The existing optimisation approaches focus on maximising objective functions. But real world problems involve optimisation of both maximising and minimising objective functions simultaneously. In this study, a game theory based approach is used for solving simultaneous optimisation of both maximum and minimum objective functions in goal models. The proposed approach is applied to Goal-Oriented Requirement Language (GRL) framework which is perceived as a standard for goal-modelling. The practicality of the proposed approach was assessed by running the case studies in a simulated environment using JAVA Eclipse combined with IBM Cplex tool. The results showed that the proposed approach aids in the analysis of goals in goal models with opposing objective functions.

A decision framework for cloud migration: A hybrid approach

Cloud computing is utilised for information technology outsourcing of either industries or organisations. There are several inhibitors and motivations related factors to determine whether one can embrace the cloud services or not. Therefore, this paper presents a holistic and flexible cloud decision framework by taking a wide spectrum weighted factors related to the acceptance or denial of the cloud services. To have sustainable decision and obviating the shortcomings of the existing approaches on the cloud service adoption, a deep understanding of organisation's business process requirements and cost implications is required. To utilise the proposed model, the functional and non-functional requirements associated to the business process of an adopter organisation must be specified. To reach a concrete decision, a hybrid approach is applied by incorporating the analytic hierarchy process and Delphi methods to prevent subjective outcomes and to have diverse experiences at the same time. To support the decision model, some economic theories and Moore law are used. To verify the proposed model, a Telecommunication Company is considered as a case study for its 6-year plan of investment. The simulation results of conducted scenarios for the mentioned mid-scale case study prove that it is logical to establish on-premises a private datacenter and utilising the hybrid deployment once it encounters abrupt burst of resource demand. Altogether, the proposed holistic model can be customised for different users with different scales.

Brief Reports Prepared by Students and Graduates of Master of Science in Biobanking.

Brief Reports Prepared by Students and Graduates of Master of Science in Biobanking.

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.

A Systematic Review on Non-Functional Requirements Documentation in Agile Methodology

This systematic literature review studies and summarizes findings of requirements documentation of non-functional requirements practiced by agile software development teams. It identifies current practices and existing gaps when agile software teams discuss and implement non-functional requirements, and the current methods used to document non-functional requirements. Our aim is to identify available evidence on current practices and gaps in documenting non-functional requirements. The review was conducted by searching major databases for publications between 2018 and 2022. The inclusion and exclusion criteria as well as quality assessment scoring criteria were subsequently established. Results show that common themes in the practices and gaps in requirements documentation by agile teams do intersect although they are scarce. This review has the benefit for practitioners to have a better approach to document the requirements that may result in a more quality software product.

Software Architecture and Non-Fungible Tokens for Digital Twin Decentralized Applications in the Built Environment

Blockchain technology (BCT) can enable distributed collaboration, enhance data sharing, and automate back-end processes for digital twin (DT) decentralized applications (dApps) in the construction industry (CI) 4.0. The aim of this paper was to propose a software architecture and to develop a framework of smart contracts for blockchain-based digital twin (BCDT) dApps throughout the lifecycle of projects in CI 4.0. This paper leveraged the existing literature and action research interviews to identify and validate the critical industry problems, functional requirements (FRs), and non-functional requirements (NFRs) to be addressed by BCDT dApps in CI 4.0. Basic use cases were developed to design a framework of smart contracts for BCDT dApps throughout the lifecycle of projects. The analysis of an online survey was used to identify the key requirements and enablers to propose a software architecture for BCDT applications and to validate the requirements for developing the framework of a smart contract for BCDTs. The findings were: (1) The identification of key problems in CI 4.0 for each BIM/BCDT dimension (3D, 4D, 5D, 6D, 7D, 8D, and contractual (cD)) and the related FRs and NFRs for BCDT applications. Additionally, key use cases were designed to address the problems identified. (2) The proposed BCDT architecture permitted us to narrow gaps in the literature on blockchain-based decentralized digital twins. Moreover, the proposed BCDT architecture and smart-contract framework addressed the main requirements in the literature on BCDTs. (3) The study leveraged the non-fungible token (NFT) standard to develop a framework for smart contracts that addressed the key use cases and the related industry problems and functional requirements that were identified. The study also considered the contractual dimension (cD) as an overarching dimension in relation to the other BCDT dimensions. (4) We also compared the costs of several public blockchains for executing the proposed smart-contract framework throughout the lifecycle of a medium-sized building project. The cost analysis permitted the development of criteria to evaluate the suitability of blockchain networks for BCDT applications in CI 4.0 depending on the principal blockchain networks’ properties (security, decentralization, scalability, and interoperability). Finally, this study resulted in a novel framework that included software architecture, smart-contract use cases, and selection criteria among blockchain networks for BCDT dApps in CI 4.0.

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.

Use of augmented reality technologies in the framework of m-Learning at the Infantery Museum Marine Park

The research proposes to design a software to visualize the relevant information of historical military objects through augmented reality technology, contributing to the modernization of the museum, generating a more attractive and autonomous visit for visitors. The research is embodied in two phases. In the requirements phase, data collection instruments were implemented in order to identify the functional and non-functional requirements of the proposed system; In the design phase, the block diagram and flow diagram are modeled to outline the software architecture and illustrate the communication between the different technologies that make up the system. As a result, the structure and characteristics of a model that meets the needs of the Infantery Museum Marine Park was obtained. It is concluded that this model can contribute to the digitization, exhibition and appropriation of the cultural content exhibited in the different scenarios of the Infantery Museum Marine Park in its processes of transmission of knowledge about the various cultural heritages of the museum.

Challenges and review of goal-oriented requirements engineering based competitive non-functional requirements analysis

Modelling and analysis in software system development can be especially challenging in early requirements engineering (RE), where high-level system non-functional requirements are discovered. In the early stage, hard to measure non-functional requirements are critical; understanding the interactions between systems and stakeholders is key to system success. Goal-oriented requirements engineering (GORE) has been successful in dealing with the issues that may arise during the analysis of requirements. While assisting in the analysis of requirements, i* goal model is the only framework available among the many GORE models, emphasising socio-technical domains such as stakeholders/actors/players, goals/objectives, dependencies and design options/alternatives. Most current approaches to goal-model analysis use quantitative methods or formal information that is hard to gather in early RE, or produce analysis results automatically over models. In real-time competitive applications, the goals of various stakeholders are conflicting in complex systems. Also, each of the system goals have various alternative design options for the systems and optimal selection of goal-oriented requirements faces several challenges in requirements-based engineering. Hence, effective decision-making frameworks are necessary to capture the real issues to achieve multi-objective optimisation of interdependent actors. To obtain an optimum strategy for interdependent actors in the i* goal model must balance the opposing goals reciprocally. To achieve this, the model needs to go beyond the analytical decision-making tools such as sensitivity analysis tasks, cost-effective analysis process, game-theoretic concepts and analytical hierarchical process. To address these requirements, this paper discusses the design of novel frameworks for an agent-based goal model analysis in requirements engineering. The objective of this paper is to provide a brief and comprehensive review of the major efforts undertaken along this line of research. In this paper we have prepared literature review of the concepts, terminology, significance and techniques of Goal oriented requirements engineering in the context of non-functional requirements analysis.

Digital twins: An analysis framework and open issues

The concept of twinning an operational physical system with a functional replica is not new, having been practiced in the space sector for over 50 years. Advances in digitalisation have created opportunities to extract data, obtain insights and achieve greater situational awareness of a physical system’s performance. Increasing interest in the concept has led to a proliferation of digital twin definitions, which are used to frame discussions about specific digital twins. Consequentially comparison of the capabilities of specific digital twins is difficult as they are analysed using different definitions. This paper proposes an analysis framework that enables the characteristics of all digital twins to be matched to this framework. Using this framework, a digital twin may be characterised, or two or more digital twins may be compared. By establishing a framework that contains common functional characteristics, we aim to reduce the confusion caused by the plethora of digital twin definitions and their interpretation by suppliers. By focusing only on functionality and not addressing non-functional requirements the analysis allows comparison of different physical and logical instantiations of digital twins.

Integration of DevOps Practices on a Noise Monitor System with CircleCI and Terraform

Lowering pollution levels is one of the main principles of Sustainable Development goals dictated by the United Nations. Consequently, developments on noise monitoring contribute in great manner to this purpose, since they give the opportunity to governments and institutions to maintain track on the matter. While developing a software product for this purpose, with the growth in terms of functional and non-functional requirements, elements such as infrastructure, source code, and others also scale up. Consequently if there are not good practices to face the new challenges of the software product, then it could become more complex to refactor, maintain, and scale, causing a decrease on delivery rate and the quality of the product. DevOps is an emerging concept but still hazy, which involves a set of practices that helps organizations to speed up delivery time, improve software quality and collaboration between teams. The aim of this article is to document the implementation of some DevOps practices such as IaC, continuous integration and deployment, code quality control, and collaboration on a noise monitor system to increase the product quality and automation of deployment. The final result is a set of automated pipelines that represents the entire integration and deployment cycle of the software integrated with platforms to improve quality and maintainability of the software components.

Eliciting Non-Functional Requirements in E-learning

Eliciting Non-Functional Requirements in E-learning