A concern-aware requirements engineering framework

Abstract

Poorly understood and articulated requirements have been widely acknowledged as the main contributor for software development problems. A number of studies suggest that a holistic understanding of the concerns (goals and issues) surrounding software development and stakeholders' active participation are two critical factors for the success of requirements engineering. The research as documented in this thesis thus aims to solve the problem by developing and demonstrating a new approach necessary for eliciting, analyzing, and specifying various stakeholders' concerns. The aim has been achieved with the development and demonstration of the Concern-Aware Requirements Engineering (CARE) method. The CARE method was developed by combining goal-oriented, scenario-based, and actor-oriented approach together with a consideration to object-oriented approach. This combination allows the CARE method to provide a novel way to requirements engineering. It is novel in the sense that: (i) it combines goal-oriented, scenario-based, and actor-oriented approach, (ii) it considers object-oriented specification as the reference for final format into which the acquired (elicited, analyzed, and specified) information can potentially be transformed, and (iii) it introduces multidimensional information specification by providing the coverage to describe: multi-feature, multi-description, and multi-domain information. A validation (proof-of-concept) of the CARE method's capability has been conducted by means of demonstration using the Voter Tracking System (VTS) as an example. The demonstration provides a proof-of-concept, provides incentive to study the method further, and illustrates the potential value of combining goal-oriented, scenario-based, and actor-oriented approach, together with an object-oriented approach, for developing a new requirements engineering method for socio-technical systems. A verification of the CARE method's suitability to engineer the requirements of socio-technical systems has also been conducted by means of assessment against the requirements engineering analysis framework. The validation and verification show that the CARE method is capable comprehensively and systematically acquiring (eliciting, analyzing, and specifying) various concerns (goals and issues) surrounding software developments. However, the verification of the CARE method against the principles for designing effective visual notations shows that the CARE method does not employ an effective visual notation. A tool has also been developed as an enabling technology for the CARE method. A web-based platform was selected and an artefacts versioning feature is provided, thus allowing asynchronous collaborative works of geographically distributed team members located in different timezones.