Abstract
Objective: Graphical requirements representation is often considered needed to advance model-driven development. Dedicated modelling languages include formalisms for graphically representing requirements, and together with new methods for structuring requirements, graphical modelling promises improvements such as more efficient change management. This paper examines whether the use of a graphical notation of a requirements affects the task of assessing the impact of a proposed change to a requirements specification.
Method: The efficiency of using a graphical requirements representation was examined through an experiment – using 18 student subjects. Time, perceived confidence and accuracy were measured as dependent variables.
Result: The results showed that using a graphical representation decreased the time required and increased the perceived confidence, but the accuracy decreased. However, the statistical analysis of the results showed that only the difference in time was significant. Furthermore, there was a large difference in variance within the dependent variables between the groups.
Access provided by Autonomous University of Puebla. Download to read the full chapter text
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Kent, S.: Model Driven Engineering. Integrated Formal Methods, 286–298 (2002)
France, R., Rumpe, B.: Model-driven Development of Complex Software: A Research Roadmap. In: 2007 Future of Software Engineering, pp. 37–54. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos (2007)
Ludewig, J.: Models in software engineering – an introduction. Software and Systems Modeling 2, 5–14 (2003)
Object Management Group, http://www.omg.org/
Greenfield, J., Short, K.: Software factories: assembling applications with patterns, models, frameworks and tools. In: Companion of the 18th annual ACM SIGPLAN conference on Object-oriented programming, systems, languages, and applications, pp. 16–27. ACM, Anaheim (2003)
SysML - Open Source Specification Project, http://www.sysml.org/
Jacobson, I.: Object Oriented Software Engineering: A Use Case Driven Approach. Addison-Wesley Professional, Reading (1992)
Hänninen, K., Mäki-Turja, J., Nolin, M.: Present and future requirements in developing industrial embedded real-time systems - interviews with designers in the vehicle domain. In: 13th Annual IEEE International Symposium and Workshop on Engineering of Computer Based Systems, ECBS 2006, p. 9 (2006)
Kallenbach, R.G., Emig, R.: Automotive Electronics - What Makes It So Special? Presented at the October 1 (2004)
Salzmann, C., Stauner, T.: Automotive software engineering: an emerging application domain for software engineering. In: Languages for system specification: Selected contributions on UML, systemC, system Verilog, mixed-signal systems, and property specification from FDL 2003, pp. 333–347. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht (2004)
Broy, M., Kruger, I., Pretschner, A., Salzmann, C.: Engineering Automotive Software. Proceedings of the IEEE 95, 356–373 (2007)
Noppen, J., van den Broek, P., Aksit, M.: Imperfect Requirements in Software Development. In: Sawyer, P., Paech, B., Heymans, P. (eds.) REFSQ 2007. LNCS, vol. 4542, pp. 247–261. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)
ASIS - Algorithms and Software for Improved Safety, http://www.ait.gu.se/english/research_groups/se_management/research_projects/ASIS_Active_Safety_Systems/
Mellegård, N., Staron, M.: A Domain Specific Modelling Language for Specifying and Visualizing Requirements. In: The First International Workshop on Domain Engineering, DE@CAiSE, Amsterdam (2009)
Winkler, S.: Information Flow Between Requirement Artifacts. Results of an Empirical Study. In: Sawyer, P., Paech, B., Heymans, P. (eds.) REFSQ 2007. LNCS, vol. 4542, pp. 232–246. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)
Gorschek, T., Wohlin, C.: Requirements abstraction model. Requir. Eng. 11, 79–101 (2006)
Mellegård, N., Staron, M.: Methodology for Requirements Engineering in Model-Based Projects for Reactive Automotive Software. In: Vitek, J. (ed.) ECOOP 2008. LNCS, vol. 5142. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)
Maiden, N., Minocha, S., Sutcliffe, A., Manuel, D., Ryan, M.: Co-operative scenario based approach to acquisition and validation of system requirements: how exceptions can help! Interacting with Computers 11, 645–664 (1999)
Cox, K., Phalp, K.: Replicating the CREWS use case authoring guidelines experiment. Empirical Software Engineering 5, 245–267 (2000)
Phalp, K., Vincent, J., Cox, K.: Improving the quality of use case descriptions: Empirical assessment of writing guidelines. Software Quality Journal 15, 383–399 (2007)
Gravino, C., Scanniello, G., Tortora, G.: An Empirical Investigation on Dynamic Modeling in Requirements Engineering. In: Czarnecki, K., Ober, I., Bruel, J.-M., Uhl, A., Völter, M. (eds.) MODELS 2008. LNCS, vol. 5301, pp. 615–629. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)
Lange, C., Chaudron, M.: Interactive views to improve the comprehension of UML models - An experimental validation. In: Proceedings - ICPC 2007: 15th IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension, pp. 221–230 (2007)
De Lucia, A., Gravino, C., Oliveto, R., Tortora, G.: Data model comprehension an empirical comparison of ER and UML class diagrams. In: Proceedings of the 16th IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension, ICPC, pp. 93–102 (2008)
Otero, M., Dolado, J.: An empirical comparison of the dynamic modeling in OML and UML. Journal of Systems and Software 77, 91–102 (2005)
Gorschek, T., Garre, P., Larsson, S., Wohlin, C.: Industry evaluation of the Requirements Abstraction Model. Requirements Engineering 12, 163–190 (2007)
Mohammad, N., Vandewoude, Y., Berbers, Y., Feldt, R.: Suitability of Requirements Abstraction Model (RAM) Requirements for High-Level System Testing. International Journal of Computer and Information Science and Engineering, 2
Wong, K., Sun, D.: On evaluating the layout of UML diagrams for program comprehension. Software Quality Journal 14, 233–259 (2006)
Lindvall, M.: Evaluating Impact Analysis - A Case Study. Empirical Software Engineering 2, 152–158 (1997)
Arisholm, E., Briand, L., Hove, S., Labiche, Y.: The impact of UML documentation on software maintenance: An experimental evaluation. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 32, 365–381 (2006)
gRAM Experiment Material, http://www.ituniv.se/~miroslaw/ram-dsl_experiment/
Little, R., Rubin, D.: Statistical Analysis with Missing Data. Wiley, Chichester (2002)
Altman, D.: Practical Statistics for Medical Research. Chapman-Hall, Boca Raton (1991)
Bowerman, B., O’Connell, R., Murphree, E.: Business Statistics in Practice. McGraw-Hill, New York (2008)
Wohlin, C., Runeson, P., Höst, M., Ohlsson, M.C., Regnell, B., Wesslèn, A.: Experimentation in Software Engineering: An Introduction. Kluwer Academic Publisher, Boston (2000)
Staron, M., Kuzniarz, L., Wohlin, C.: Empirical assessment of using stereotypes to improve comprehension of UML models: A set of experiments. Journal of Systems and Software 79, 727–742 (2006)
Staron, M.: Using Experiments in Software Engineering as an Auxiliary Tool for Teaching – A Perspective of Students’ Learning Process. In: Borsler, J., Eriksson, J. (eds.) 6th Conference on Software Engineering Research and Practice, Sweden, pp. 29–38. Umeå University, Umeå (2006)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Mellegård, N., Staron, M. (2010). Improving Efficiency of Change Impact Assessment Using Graphical Requirement Specifications: An Experiment. In: Ali Babar, M., Vierimaa, M., Oivo, M. (eds) Product-Focused Software Process Improvement. PROFES 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6156. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13792-1_26
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13792-1_26
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-13791-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-13792-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)