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Software architectural design has an enormous effect on downstream software artifacts. Decomposition of function for the final system is one of the critical steps in software architectural design. The process of decomposition is typically conducted by designers based on their intuition and past experiences, which may not be robust sometimes. This paper presents a study of applying the clustering technique to support system decomposition based on requirements and their attributes. The approach can support the architectural design process by grouping closely related requirements to form a subsystem or module. In this paper, we demonstrate our experiments in applying the approach to an industrial communication protocol software system and comparing several clustering algorithms. The result obtained from WPGMA (weighted pair-group method using arithmetic averages) shows closer resemblance than other clustering methods to the one developed by the designer.

Inspections of software artifacts during early software development aids managers to detect early faults that may be hard to find and fix later. Results showed inspection ability does not depend on educational background and technical knowledge. This paper presents the results from an industrial empirical study, wherein the Learning Styles (i.e. ability to perceive and process information) of individual inspectors were manipulated to measure its impact on the fault detection effectiveness of inspection teams. Using inspection data from professional developers, we developed virtual teams with varying LS’s of individual inspectors and analyzed the team performance. The results from the current study show that teams of inspectors with diverse LS’s are significantly more effective at detecting faults as compared to teams of inspectors with similar LS’s. Therefore, LS’s can aid software managers to create high performance inspection team(s) and manage software quality.

Requirements Elicitation (RE) consists of collecting requirements for a future system. It involves engineers who are eliciting information, and stakeholders who are involved in the project to provide information. This research note aims to stimulate research about the impact of stakeholders’ commitment on RE. We define commitment, discuss how it can be measured during RE, and present a first exploratory study that we conducted to build a prototype “commitment matrix”. The matrix aims to clarify what engineers may expect during RE when involving stakeholders who are more or less committed.

Traceability between software requirements and UML design helps requirement engineers and software developers understand the project goal and software architecture. However, the traceability mapping between the two elements is not well-defined and as a result there is no consistent way to make the traceability between two. A practical guideline is proposed for the traceability between software requirement and UML design. The guideline includes meta-model and process step. The process step defines detailed processes and most importantly, the Requirement-type and its mapping to UML diagrams. Requirements can be categorized based on their aspects and this categorization can be made as Requirement-type. This pre-defined Requirement-type is added to each requirement and this Requirement-type enforces to use certain types of UML diagrams as solutions. This mapping between each Requirement-type and UML diagram is the key of proposed guideline. With the help of the Requirement-type and mapping, traceability link can be made easily and checked automatically. The guideline was applied to the Missile Project and Helicopter Project of ADD (Agency of Defense Development) in South Korea.

Agile methods have provided significant contributions to Software Engineering. This work presents a new process for Software Requirements Specification, integrating Agile Properties and regulated environments, such as aviation, medical, nuclear and automotive, among others. The Software in Regulated Environments (SRE) involves plan-driven methods with needed documentation to ensure safety, reliability, security, and discipline. This paper proposes a balance between agile and plan-driven methods. We define a new process, which explores and investigates the usage of agile methods in SRE. The scope of this paper is Requirements Engineering, which is considered as a set of activities involved in the management, elicitation, documentation, and maintenance of requirements. The Adile Requirements Specification (ARES) process contains four methods, 13 activities, and some required artifacts to ensure compliance with the following six relevant Software Standards for regulated environments: RTCA DO-178C, IEC 62304:2015, ECSS-E-ST-40C, IEC 61508-3, ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207, and IAEA SSG-39. The process evaluation was performed using two experiments: a Cockpit Display System (CDS) and a Healthcare Information System (HIS). These experiments were measured with appropriate metrics to ensure improvements in Software Requirements Specification and traceability among artifacts. The experimental results revealed that the ARES process works better than the original Scrum for Software in Regulated Environments. The ARES process can also be integrated with traditional software life cycles (Waterfall, V, and Incremental and Iterative), when applied in the Requirements Engineering phase.

In this paper we present a study on the requirements for the design and implementation of simulation packages for Grid systems. Grids are emerging as new distributed computing systems whose main objective is to manage and allocate geographically distributed computing resources to applications and users in an efficient and transparent manner. Grid systems are at present very difficult and complex to use for experimental studies of large-scale distributed applications. Although the field of simulation of distributed computing systems is mature, recent developments in large-scale distributed systems are raising needs not present in the simulation of the traditional distributed systems. Motivated by this, we present in this work a set of basic requirements that any simulation package for Grid computing should offer. This set of functionalities is obtained after a careful review of most important existing Grid simulation packages and includes new requirements not considered in such simulation packages. Based on the identified set of requirements, a Grid simulator is developed and exemplified for the Grid scheduling problem.

This paper focuses on the traceability issue as key element in systems design and management of system. The work is presented through the system engineering framework with a main emphasis on requirements process. Effectively in decision making, the need for traceability model is often required in order to find out the link for a considered decision and often the semantics of such link. With the advent for information technology and integrating technical needs and business goal, the traceability find its essence and many models can now be easily implemented automatically. The paper is based on many experiences carried out ranging from audit to requirement evolution issues for impact analysis.

The New Product Development Process (NDP) is noticed as a critical factor to maintain the competitiveness in organizations. New products allow us to focus on taking a competitive position. Also, the first and most important reason for any new product development is to provide new value to the customer. In this sense, the Requirements Engineering (RE) approach plays a vital role within the New Product Development Process (NDP) lifecycle, once the product performance and its acceptability on the market depend on how RE is integrated into the product development. In this way, this paper aims to identify the proposed solutions and trends regarding RE, through a literature review based on studies produced in the last five years. Hence, the existing gaps in the literature about this theme are presented and analyzed. In order to achieve these objectives, the present study was based on ProKnow-C process (Knowledge Development Process — Constructivist).

This study aimed to explore emergency planning requirements for managing disasters in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The study adopted interpretivism; an inductive approach; a descriptive survey; and qualitative methods to address its aim. The techniques used included a literature review and semi-structured interviews. The study sample consisted of 13 experts from the KSA General Directorate of Civil Defence (GDCD). The data were analyzed by using content analysis. The study findings revealed that the emergency planning requirements are administrative requirements, including regulations and legislation; technical requirements, which include equipment; human resources, including staff and responders; identifying, analyzing, and evaluating risks; determining the tasks and responsibilities of the relevant agencies and stakeholders; qualified leadership; determining the chain of command at national and local levels; coordination and cooperation among stakeholders; knowledge gained from local or international experiences; updated database; the availability of sufficient financial resources; completed infrastructure; and improved training and practice. The study also found that although emergency planning requirements are more or less in place, there is a need for further improvement and development; specifically, there is a need for better understanding, knowledge, and awareness. Consequently, it strongly recommends that all emergency planning requirements developed from this study should be implemented simultaneously and as an integrated whole. By doing so, it could help decision makers and emergency planners at government emergency agencies to improve, develop, and reinforce emergency planning, specifically in reducing disaster risks.