Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
skip to main content
10.1145/3023956.3023964acmotherconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagesvamosConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

Ambiguity defects as variation points in requirements

Published: 01 February 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Software requirements are generally expressed in Natural Language. NL is intrinsically ambiguous, and this is seen as a possible source of problems in the later interpretation of requirements. However, ambiguity or under-specification at requirements level can in some cases give an indication of possible variability, either in design choice, in implementation choices or configurability. Taking into account the results of previous analyses conducted on different requirements documents with NL analysis tools, we attempt a first classification of the forms of ambiguity that indicate variation points, and we indicate an approach to achieve automated support to variability elicitation.

References

[1]
V. Ambriola, V. Gervasi, On the Systematic Analysis of Natural Language Requirements with CIRCE, Automated Software Engineering, Volume 13, Issue 1, pp 107--167, 2006.
[2]
M. Antkiewicz, K. Bąk, A. Murashkin, R. Olaechea, J. H. Liang, and K. Czarnecki. Clafer Tools for Product Line Engineering. 17th International Software Product Lines Conference, SPLC 2013, volume 2, pages 130--135.
[3]
N. H. Bakar, Z. M. Kasirun, and N. Salleh, Feature extraction approaches from natural language requirements for reuse in software product lines: A systematic literature review, J. Syst. Softw., vol. 106, pp. 132--149, 2015.
[4]
G. Bécan, R. Behjati, A. Gotlieb, M. Acher, Synthesis of attributed feature models from product descriptions, 19th International Software Product Lines Conference, SPLC 2015: pp. 1--10.
[5]
G. Bécan, N. Sannier, M. Acher, O. Barais, A. Blouin, B.Baudry, Automating the formalization of product comparison matrices, ACM/IEEE International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, ASE, 2014, pp. 433--444.
[6]
D.M. Berry, Ambiguity in Natural Language Requirements Documents, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 5320, 2008, pp. 1--7.
[7]
D. M. Berry, A. Bucchiarone, S. Gnesi, G. Lami, G. Trentanni, A new quality model for natural language requirements specifications . 12th International Working Conference on Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality (REFSQ) 2006, pp. 115--128.
[8]
A. Bucchiarone, S. Gnesi, A. Fantechi, G. Trentanni, An experience in using a tool for evaluating a large set of natural language requirements. ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC) 2010: pp. 281--286.
[9]
A. Fantechi, S. Gnesi, Formal Modeling for Product Families Engineering. 12th International Software Product Lines Conference, SPLC 2008, pp. 193--202.
[10]
A. Ferrari, G. O. Spagnolo, and F. Dell'Orletta, Mining commonalities and variabilities from natural language documents, in Proc. 17th International Software Product Lines Conference, SPLC 2013, pp. 116--120.
[11]
A. Ferrari, F. Dell'Orletta, A.Esuli, V. Gervasi, S. Gnesi, Natural Language Requirements Processing: A 4D Vision, IEEE Software, to appear.
[12]
V. Gervasi, D. Zowghi, On the Role of Ambiguity in RE, Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality: 16th International Working Conference, (REFSQ), LNCS 6182, 2010, pp. 248--254.
[13]
S. Gnesi, G. Lami, G. Trentanni, An automatic tool for the analysis of natural language requirements, Comput. Syst. Sci. Eng., 20, 1, 2005.
[14]
B. Gleich, O. Creighton, and L. Kof, Ambiguity Detection: Towards a Tool Explaining Ambiguity Sources, Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality, (REFSQ) LNCS 6182, Springer, 2010, pp. 218--232.
[15]
K. C. Kang, S. G. Cohen, J. A. Hess, W. E. Novak, A. S. Peterson, Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis (FODA) Feasibility Study, Tech. rep., Carnegie-Mellon University Software Engineering Institute, 1990.
[16]
N. Itzik, I. Reinhartz-Berger, Y. Wand, Variability Analysis of Requirements: Considering Behavioral Differences and Reflecting Stakeholders Perspectives IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 42, 7, July 2016, pp. 687--706.
[17]
B. Rosadini, A. Ferrari, G. Gori, A. Fantechi, S. Gnesi, I. Trotta, and S. Bacherini, Using NLP to Detect Requirements Defects: an Industrial Experience in the Railway Domain, to appear on Proceedings Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality: 23rd International Working Conference, (REFSQ),2017.
[18]
N. Sannier, M. Acher, B. Baudry: From comparison matrix to Variability Model: The Wikipedia case study. 28th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, ASE, 2013, pp. 580--585.
[19]
S.F. Tjong, and D.M. Berry, The Design of SREE-A Prototype Potential Ambiguity Finder for Requirements Specifications and Lessons Learned, Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality, (REFSQ), Lecture Notes in Computer Science 7830, 2013, pp 80--95.

Cited By

View all
  • (2021)A spaCy-based tool for extracting variability from NL requirementsProceedings of the 25th ACM International Systems and Software Product Line Conference - Volume B10.1145/3461002.3473074(32-35)Online publication date: 6-Sep-2021
  • (2019)Applying the QuARS Tool to Detect VariabilityProceedings of the 23rd International Systems and Software Product Line Conference - Volume B10.1145/3307630.3342388(29-32)Online publication date: 9-Sep-2019
  • (2019)Nuts and Bolts of Extracting Variability Models from Natural Language Requirements DocumentsIntegrating Research and Practice in Software Engineering10.1007/978-3-030-26574-8_10(125-143)Online publication date: 3-Aug-2019
  • Show More Cited By

Recommendations

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences
VaMoS '17: Proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems
February 2017
114 pages
ISBN:9781450348119
DOI:10.1145/3023956
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 February 2017

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Check for updates

Author Tags

  1. ambiguity in requirements
  2. variability in software product lines

Qualifiers

  • Research-article

Conference

VaMoS '17

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 66 of 147 submissions, 45%

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

  • Downloads (Last 12 months)5
  • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0
Reflects downloads up to 01 Nov 2024

Other Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all
  • (2021)A spaCy-based tool for extracting variability from NL requirementsProceedings of the 25th ACM International Systems and Software Product Line Conference - Volume B10.1145/3461002.3473074(32-35)Online publication date: 6-Sep-2021
  • (2019)Applying the QuARS Tool to Detect VariabilityProceedings of the 23rd International Systems and Software Product Line Conference - Volume B10.1145/3307630.3342388(29-32)Online publication date: 9-Sep-2019
  • (2019)Nuts and Bolts of Extracting Variability Models from Natural Language Requirements DocumentsIntegrating Research and Practice in Software Engineering10.1007/978-3-030-26574-8_10(125-143)Online publication date: 3-Aug-2019
  • (2018)Hacking an Ambiguity Detection Tool to Extract Variation PointsProceedings of the 12th International Workshop on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems10.1145/3168365.3168381(43-50)Online publication date: 7-Feb-2018
  • (2018)Requirement Engineering of Software Product Lines: Extracting Variability Using NLP2018 IEEE 26th International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE)10.1109/RE.2018.00053(418-423)Online publication date: Aug-2018

View Options

Get Access

Login options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media