Andrés Silva

Is the European Industry Moving toward Solving Requirements Engineering Problems

This article gives an informal overview of the situation of European companies regarding requirements engineering. It reviews what progress the industry has made with respect to the requirements-related problems identified years ago and calls attention to the gap between RE practice and the solutions provided by research. The authors aim to determine whether the same problems still exist today, even though potential solutions have been provided in the literature for some time.

Requirements Engineering for Sociotechnical Systems

Section I - Basics: Chapter 1: Requirements Engineering: Dealing with the Complexity of Sociotechnical Systems Development Chapter 2: Challenges in Requirements Engineering for Embedded Systems Chapter 3: Requirements Elicitation for Complex Systems: Theory and Practice Chapter 4: Conceptual Modelling in Requirements Engineering: Weaknesses and Alternatives Chapter 5: Combining Requirements Engineering and Agents Chapter 6: Maturing Requirements Engineering Process Maturity Models Chapter 7: Requirements Prioritisation for Incremental and Iterative Development Chapter 8: A Quality Model for Requirements Management Tools. Section II - Challenges: Chapter 9: Composing Systems of Systems. Requirements for the integration of autonomous computer systems Chapter 10: Requirements Engineering for Technical Products: Integrating Specification, Validation and Change Management. Chapter 11: Requirements Engineering for Courseware Development Chapter 12: Collaborative Requirements Definition Processes in Open Source Software Development Chapter 13: Requirements Engineering for Value Webs. Section III - Approaches: Chapter 14: Requirements Engineering in Cooperative Systems Chapter 15: RESCUE: An Integrated Method for Specifying Requirements for Complex Socio-Technical Systems Chapter 16: Using Scenarios and Drama Improvisation for Identifying and Analysing Requirements for Mobile Electronic Patient Records Chapter 17: Elicitation and Documentation of Non-functional Requirements for Sociotechnical Systems Chapter 18: Capture of Software Requirements and Rationale through Collaborative Software Development Chapter 19: Problem Frames for Socio-technical Systems Chapter 20: Communication Analysis as Perspective and Method for Requirements Engineering

A methodological framework for viewpoint-oriented conceptual modeling

To solve any nontrivial problem, it first needs to be conceptualized, taking into account the individual who has the problem. However, a problem is generally associated with more than one individual, as is usually the case in software development. Therefore, this process has to take into account different viewpoints about the problem and any discrepancies that could arise as a result. Traditionally, conceptualization in software engineering has omitted the different viewpoints that the individuals may have of the problem and has inherently enforced consistency in the event of any discrepancies, which are considered as something to be systematically rejected. The paper presents a methodological framework that explicitly drives the conceptualization of different viewpoints and manages the different types of discrepancies that arise between them, which become really important in the process. The definition of this framework is generic, and it is therefore independent of any particular software development paradigm. Its application to software engineering means that viewpoints and their possible discrepancies can be considered in the software process conceptual modeling phase. This application is illustrated by means of what is considered to be a standard problem: the IFIP case.

Relating software requirements and architectures

Requirements engineering and software architecture have become established areas of software engineering research, education, and practice. Requirements engineering is concerned with discovering the purpose of a software system and the contexts in which it will be used (Nuseibeh and Easterbrook, 2000). Software architecture is concerned with the study of the structure of software, including its topology, properties, constituent components and their relationships and patterns of combination (Perry and Wolf, 1992). There have been significant research advances made in both software requirements and architectures, and fundamental differences and relationships between the two areas have come to light which are outlined.

A methodological framework for generic conceptualisation: problem-sensitivity in software engineering

Abstract The first step towards developing quality software is to conceptually model the problem raised in its own context. Software engineering, however, has traditionally focused on implementation concepts, and has paid little or no attention to the problem domain. This paper presents a generic methodological framework to guide conceptual modelling, focusing on the problem within its domain. This framework is defined considering aspects related to a generic conceptualisation, and its application to software engineering—illustrated using the IFIP Case—achieves the called-for problem-sensitivity.

Knowledge Management Systems Development: A Roadmap

This paper approaches the Knowledge Management Systems study, focusing not only in the establishment of essential development activities, but also in techniques, technologies, and tools for their support. Despite of the wide range of existing proposals for the development of this type of systems, none of them has achieved a level detailed enough to allow a direct application. This study is intended to be a palliative for the above-mentioned lack of detail by means of a development guide for Knowledge Management Systems. In this way, the proposed solution offers a clear definition concerning what has to be done and which type of mechanisms should be used for its development.

Formal conceptualisation as a basis for a more procedural knowledge management

Knowledge management at an organisational level can only be brought into practice if a corporate memory is defined. Unfortunately, at this moment there is no complete and procedural specification on how to build it. This paper presents a complete and generic knowledge representation scheme that makes it possible to conceptualise/represent the knowledge of any domain in a systematic way, guiding the definition of a corporate memory and allowing us to reach a more procedural level in knowledge management discipline. The conclusions of our study, which follows the generic and formal definition of any conceptualisation, are illustrated by a real project.

Towards a lessons learned system for critical software

Failure can be a major driver for the advance of any engineering discipline and Software Engineering is no exception. But failures are useful only if lessons are learned from them. In this article we aim to make a strong defence of, and set the requirements for, lessons learned systems for safety-critical software. We also present a prototype lessons learned system that includes many of the features discussed here. We emphasize that, apart from individual organizations, lessons learned systems should target industrial sectors and even the Software Engineering community. We would like to encourage the Software Engineering community to use this kind of systems as another tool in the toolbox, which complements or enhances other approaches like, for example, standards and checklists.

Definition of a problem-sensitive conceptual modelling language: foundations and application to software engineering

Abstract A conceptual modelling language should provide constructors that can be used to represent the conceptualisation of a problem considering the problem domain. However, software engineering has traditionally focused on implementation concepts. This paper considers the appropriate generic conceptualisation theoretical aspects to identify the conceptual elements for which constructors have to be provided in a problem-sensitive conceptual modelling language. These elements match the formal definition of any conceptualisation and are derived from natural language. By looking at these elements, we have defined a conceptual modelling language that has been successfully applied in knowledge engineering and software engineering.

Govcloud: Using Cloud Computing in Public Organizations

Governments are facing reductions in ICT budgets just as users are increasing demands for electronic services. One solution announced aggressively by vendors is cloud computing. Cloud computing is not a new technology, but it is a new way of offering services, taking into consideration business and economic models for providing and consuming ICT services. The paper explains the impact and benefits for public organizations of cloud services and explore issues of why governments are slow to adopt use of the cloud.