Requirements Engineering Artifact Quality

196 Pages·2017·6.18 MB·English

by  Henning Femmer

Institut für Informatik
der Technischen Universität München
Requirements Engineering Artifact Quality:
Definition and Control
Henning Femmer
Vollständiger Abdruck der von der Fakultät für Informatik der Technischen Universität
München zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines
Doktors der Naturwissenschaften (Dr. rer. nat.)
genehmigten Dissertation.
Vorsitzende: Prof. Dr. Susanne Albers
Prüfer der Dissertation:
1. Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Manfred Broy
2. Prof. Dr. Martin Glinz,
Universität Zürich
DieDissertationwurdeam22.02.2017beiderTechnischenUniversitätMüncheneingereicht
und durch die Fakultät für Informatik am 20.06.2017 angenommen.

Abstract
Requirements Engineering (RE) artifacts are central entities in the software engi-
neeringprocess. Basedontheseartifacts,projectmanagersestimateeffort,designers
create architectures, developers build the system, and test managers set up a
test-strategy. Consequently, quality defects in RE artifacts can cause expensive
consequences in subsequent software development activities. Therefore, quality
control of RE artifacts is key for successful software development projects.
However, quality control of RE artifacts faces two problems: First, the definition
of RE artifact quality often remains incomplete, inadequate and imprecise. This
problem concerns both the definition of valid quality factors as well as the claimed
impacts of these quality factors onto projects. Second, in addition to the lack of
a precise quality definition, we also struggle to assess any definition of quality in
practice, since finding defects is labor-intensive and error-prone.
In summary, we have a limited understanding of what high quality RE artifacts
are and need more efficient methods to control RE artifact quality in practice.
This thesis makes two contribution regarding these problems: (1) The concept of
activity-based quality models for RE artifacts and (2) a method to detect quality
factors automatically.
(1) Addressing the former part of the problem, the first contribution of this thesis is
a novel concept of artifact quality models for RE artifacts: Activity-based Require-
ments Engineering Quality Models (ABRE-QMs). These models are based on the
assumption that RE artifacts are rarely the ultimate goal of a software project, but
a means for producing software effectively and efficiently. Therefore, ABRE-QMs
define quality factors as properties of RE artifacts with explicit impacts on software
development activities, which enables to define quality in a precise manner. We
show how to create valid ABRE-QMs in multiple studies: Through interviews, we
create an ABRE-QM based on a company’s requirements guidelines; through a case
study, we elicit various quality factors for requirements maintenance; and finally,
through an experiment, we analyze one quality factor in depth at the example of
the quality factor passive voice. In our experiment, we show the negative impact of
this quality factor onto the activity of understanding requirements. During these
studies, practitioners report increased validity and completeness of the quality defi-
nitions through ABRE-QM. Whereas the first study analyzes the applicability of
ABRE-QMs, the latter two studies show how ABRE-QMs support precise reasoning
about quality factors for RE artifacts.
(2) Addressing the latter part of the problem, the second contribution of this thesis
is an efficient method to detect violations of an ABRE-QM in a given project:
Requirements smells are those quality factors that may have negative impacts
on activities, that have a concrete indication, and that have a lightweight (e.g.
automatic) detection mechanism. We provide an analysis to which extent quality
factors can be operationalized as requirements smells and develop an automatic
requirements smell detection in a technical validation. In four case studies, we
evaluate requirements smells and their detection, showing its potential to detect
quality defects and raise the awareness for defects in practice.
This thesis provides academics and practitioners with a more precise understanding
of RE artifact quality. In addition, this thesis indicates that certain violations of
quality factors of RE artifacts can be detected more efficiently through automatic
methods. These contributions enable practitioners to conduct quality control of RE
artifacts more efficiently, and based on a well founded quality definition.

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank everyone who helped me on this journey. First, Prof. Dr.
Dr. h.c. Manfred Broy, who created this special biotope at the chair for Systems
& Software Engineering, where, from the very beginning, I could follow my own
path and drive the topic how I considered sensible. This environment initiated
my interests in research. I would also like to thank Prof. Dr. Martin Glinz for
co-supervising this thesis and especially for helping me to keep up the quality on
the last meters.
Furthermore, I want to thank the various companies who shaped my views and tools
through advice, time and data: The partners from, among others, BMW, CQSE,
Daimler, MAN Trucks and Busses, Munich Re, Siemens, Wacker Chemie, pliXos
and Qualicen made me understand and focus on applicable research.
Many colleagues and students walked with me, partly by supporting me in case
studies, partly by providing ideas, suggestions and, where necessary, headwind. I
also want to thank my friends, who were supporting, even when I could not find the
time. They were there when I needed them. You are awesome.
It is difficult to express how thankful I am for my family. Everything I am, stems
from you.
Lastly, Kristina, you are the best companion I can imagine.

Publication Preface
The contribution of this thesis is based on the following seven papers:
A[FMM15]: Henning Femmer, Jakob Mund, and Daniel Méndez Fernández. It’s the
activities,stupid!AnewperspectiveonREquality. InInternational Workshop
on Requirements Engineering and Testing, RET, pages 13–19. IEEE, 2015
D[FKV14]: Henning Femmer, Jan Kučera, and Antonio Vetrò. On the impact of
passive voice requirements on domain modelling. In International Symposium
on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement, ESEM, pages 21:1–21:4.
ACM, 2014
E[FKSJ14]: Henning Femmer, Marco Kuhrmann, Joerg Stimmer, and Joerg Junge.
Experiences from the design of an artifact model for distributed agile project
management. In International Conference on Global Software Engineering,
ICGSE, pages 1–5. IEEE, 2014
F[FMJ+14]: Henning Femmer, Daniel Méndez Fernández, Elmar Juergens, Michael
Klose, Ilona Zimmer, and Jörg Zimmer. Rapid requirements checks with
requirements smells: Two case studies. In International Workshop on Rapid
Continuous Software Engineering, RCoSE, pages 10–19. ACM, 2014
G[FMWE17]: Henning Femmer, Daniel Méndez Fernández, Stefan Wagner, and Se-
bastian Eder. Rapid quality assurance with requirements smells. Journal of
Systems and Software, 123:190–213, 2017
H[FHEM16]: Henning Femmer, Benedikt Hauptmann, Sebastian Eder, and Dagmar
Moser.Qualityassuranceofrequirementsartifactsinpractice:Acasestudyand
a process proposal. In International Conference on Product-Focused Software
Process Improvement, PROFES, pages 506–516. Springer, 2016
I[FUG17]: Henning Femmer, Michael Unterkalmsteiner, and Tony Gorschek. Which
requirementsartifactqualitydefectsareautomaticallydetectable?Acasestudy.
In Fourth International Workshop on Artificial Intelligence for Requirements
Engineering, AIRE, pages 1–7. IEEE, 2017
Furthermore this publication with major contributions as second author is also
included.
C[BFE+15]: Mohammad R. Basirati, Henning Femmer, Sebastian Eder, Martin
Fritzsche, and Alexander Widera. Understanding changes in use cases: A
case study. In International Requirements Engineering Conference, RE, pages
352–361. IEEE, 2015
UnderReview
In addition, these works with contributions are still under review. The author’s
drafts are included.
B[FV17]: Henning Femmer and Andreas Vogelsang. Requirements quality is quality
in use – a novel viewpoint –. Submitted to IEEE Software, 2017
Furtherrelatedworkco-contributedbytheauthorofthisthesis
[MMFV14]: Daniel Méndez Fernández, Jakob Mund, Henning Femmer, and Antonio
Vetrò. In quest for requirements engineering oracles: Dependent variables and
measurements for (good) RE. In International Conference on Evaluation and
Assessment in Software Engineering, EASE, pages 3:1–3:10. ACM, 2014
[MFME15]: Jakob Mund, Henning Femmer, Daniel Méndez Fernández, and Jonas
Eckhardt. Doesqualityofrequirementsspecificationsmatter?combinedresults
of two empirical studies. In International Symposium on Empirical Software
Engineering and Measurement, ESEM, pages 144–153. ACM, 2015
[EVF16]: JonasEckhardt,AndreasVogelsang,andHenningFemmer. Anapproachfor
creatingsentencepatternsforqualityrequirements. InInternational Workshop
on Requirements Patterns, RePa, pages 1–8. IEEE, 2016
[EVFM16]: JonasEckhardt,AndreasVogelsang,HenningFemmer,andPhilippMager.
Challenging incompleteness of performance requirements by sentence patterns.
In International Requirements Engineering Conference, RE, pages 1–10. IEEE,
2016
[VFW16]: Andreas Vogelsang, Henning Femmer, and Christian Winkler. Take care
of your modes! an investigation of defects in automotive requirements. In
International Working Conference on Requirements Engineering: Foundation
for Software Quality, REFSQ, pages 161–167. Springer, 2016
[ABBF17]: Luca Allodi, Sebastian Banescu, Kristian Beckers, and Henning Fem-
mer. Identifying relevant information cues for vulnerability assessment using
CVSS. In Submitted to the International Symposium on Empirical Software
Engineering and Measurement, ESEM. ACM, 2017