Software Requirements Engineering

Requirement Engineering
Process

Shah Nawaz [Lecturer], Department of Software Engineering, LGU

Topics Discussed

■ Process, Process Model

■ Requirement Engineering Process

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1 Process and Process Model
 Process

■ A process synonym as procedure, method, course of action is an organized

set of activities, which transforms inputs to outputs

■ Essential for dealing with complexity in real world

■ Document the steps in solving a certain problem

■ They allow knowledge to be reused

■ They Allow people to apply the process in their peculiar but similar
problems

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 Process

Examples

■ An instruction manual for operating a microwave oven

■ An instruction manual for assembling a computer or its parts
■ A procedure manual for operating a motor vehicle, radio and CD player
■ A quality manual for software development.
■ Such a manual describes the processes, which should be used to assure the quality of
the software

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1 Requirement Engineering Process
 RE process - inputs and outputs

Ex is t in g
s ys tem s
i nform atio n

St akeho ld er Ag reed
n eed s requ irem en ts

Requ irem en ts Sy st em
Org an is ati on al eng in eerin g pro cess
s tand ards s pecifi cati on

Sy st em
R egu lat io ns m o dels

Do m ain
i nform at io n

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 Process Models

■ A process model is a simplified description of a process presented from a

particular perspective
■ There may be several different models of the same process
■ No single model gives a complete understanding of the process being
modeled

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 Types of Process Model

1. Coarse-grain activity models

2. Fine-grain activity models
3. Role-action models
4. Entity-relation models

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 Types of Process Model
1 - Coarse-grain Activity Model
Granularity refers to the level of detail of a process model and affects the kind of
guidance, explanation and trace that can be provided.

Coarse-grained models, aim at simulating the behavior of Complex systems using

their coarse-grained (simplified) representation.
This type of model provides an overall picture of the process Describes the context
of different activities in the process.

Project manager, customer representatives, the general, top-level, or middle

management require rather coarse-grained process description as they want to gain
an overview of time, budget, and resource planning for their decisions.

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 Types of Process Model
1 - Coarse-grain Activity Model

Requirements Requirements Requirements

analysis and Requirements
elicitation documentation validation
negotiation

User needs
domain Requirements
information, document
Agreed
existing system System requirements
information, specification
regulations,
standards, etc.

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 Context of RE Process in Waterfall Model
System
requirements
engineering
Software
requirements
engineering
Software
design

Programming
and
unit testing
System
testing

System
operation

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Another Perspective on Context of RE Process

System acquisition

Requirements engineering

System design

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 Spiral Model of RE Process
Informal statement of
requirements

Requirement Requirement analysis

elicitation and negotiation

Requirements
START Agreed
document and
requirements
validation report

Requirement
Requirement documentation
validation

Draft requirements
document

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 2-Fine-grain Activity Models

■ These are more detailed models of a specific process, which are used for
understanding and improving existing processes.

■ Fine granularity provides more detailed capability. The nature of granularity

needed is dependent on the situation at hand.

■ Software engineers, users, testers, analysts, or software system architects will

prefer a fine-grained process model where the details of the model can
provide them with instructions and important execution dependencies such
as the dependencies between people.

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 3-Role-action Models

■ These are models, which show the roles of different people involved in
the process and the actions which they take
■ They are useful for process understanding and automation
■ Role-action diagrams are process models which show the actors
associated with different process activities
■ They document the information needs of different people involved in
the process
■ They use model of prototype software system as part of requirements
elicitation process

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 3-Role-action Models

ACTIONS Understand Establish Select Develop Evaluate

problem outline prototyping prototype prototype
requirements system

Req. Engineer Req. Engineer SW Engineer Req. Engineer End-user

ROLES Domain expert End-user Project Mgr SW Engineer Domain expert
End-user Req. Engineer
SW Engineer

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 4-Entity-relation Models

■ The models show the process inputs, outputs, and intermediate

results and the relationships between them
■ They are useful in quality management systems
■ An entity–relationship model (or ER model) describes interrelated
things of interest in a specific domain of knowledge. A basic ER
model is composed of entity types (which classify the things of
interest) and specifies relationships that can exist between entities
(instances of those entity types).

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 4-Entity-relation Models

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Thanks!
Any questions?