Improvement of requirements quality and software process efficiency

提高需求质量和软件流程效率

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-04436
• 负责人: Trudel, Sylvie
• 金额: $ 1.68万
• 依托单位: Université du Québec à Montréal
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=587809
• 关键词: Improvement; requirements; quality; software; process

The proposed research program is in the field of software engineering, more specifically in the study of software requirements written in natural language, their quality and their measurability. It is well recognized that natural language requirements are defect-prone and a number of techniques aim to verify and validate the requirements quality through the identification of defects early in the software life cycle for efficiency purposes. Two research axes are related to quality and measurability of functional requirements, more specifically: 1) Specification methods, and 2) Verification methods of requirements written in natural languages. Our research program is aligned with these two axes. Indeed, our research goal is to first improve the quality of functional requirements by using functional size measurement (FSM) as a means to identify defects in these requirements. Then, our long-term goal is to improve requirements specification methods by including FSM early in order to avoid certain types of defects that could have a negative impact on the software engineering process efficiency. The long-term goal of our proposed research program is to improve methods for specifying requirements in order to prevent defects in the requirements. Our hypothesis is that improving requirements quality using FSM will have a positive impact on the software engineering process efficiency. Software process efficiency is measured by comparing the project effort with the software Functional Size (FS) resulting from that process and can be expressed as a number of hours spent per functional size unit. FSM is normally applied on requirements once they are completed. By moving the measurement earlier within the requirements phase, it would prevent some defects and contribute to requirements of a higher quality, hence better measureable software engineering process efficiency. To achieve this goal, we propose the following research objectives: Objective 1. To design techniques for defect identification in completed software requirements using FSM, in order to improve requirements quality. Objective 2. To investigate early defect detection within the requirements engineering phase and its relationship to the software engineering process efficiency. To achieve these objectives, research projects are defined in collaboration with industry partners and research groups and laboratories. The proposed research program is a natural evolution from progress reported in my recent Ph.D. thesis.

拟议的研究计划是在软件工程领域，更具体地说，是研究用自然语言编写的软件需求、软件需求的质量和软件需求的可测性。众所周知，自然语言需求容易出现缺陷，许多技术旨在通过在软件生命周期早期识别缺陷来验证和确认需求质量，以达到提高效率的目的。两个研究轴线与功能需求的质量和可测量性有关，更具体地说：1)规格说明方法，2)用自然语言编写的需求的验证方法。我们的研究计划与这两个轴是一致的。事实上，我们的研究目标是首先通过使用功能大小测量(FSM)作为识别这些需求中的缺陷的方法来提高功能需求的质量。然后，我们的长期目标是通过早期包含有限状态机来改进需求描述方法，以避免某些类型的缺陷可能对软件工程过程效率产生负面影响。 我们提议的研究计划的长期目标是改进指定需求的方法，以防止需求中的缺陷。我们的假设是，使用有限状态机提高需求质量将对软件工程过程效率产生积极影响。软件过程效率是通过将项目工作量与该过程产生的软件功能大小(FS)进行比较来衡量的，可以用每个功能大小单位花费的小时数来表示。FSM通常在需求完成后应用于需求。通过在需求阶段更早地移动度量，它将防止一些缺陷，并有助于更高质量的需求，从而更好地度量软件工程过程效率。为了实现这一目标，我们提出了以下研究目标： 目的1.设计基于有限状态机的软件需求缺陷识别技术，以提高需求质量。 目的2.研究需求工程阶段的早期缺陷检测及其与软件工程过程效率的关系。 为了实现这些目标，研究项目是与行业合作伙伴、研究小组和实验室合作确定的。 拟议的研究计划是我在最近的博士论文中报告的进展的自然演变。