Skip to main content

Tool Support and Specification Quality: Experimental Validation of an RE-Tool Evaluation Framework

  • Conference paper
Perspectives in Conceptual Modeling (ER 2005)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 3770))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

Automated support for the requirements engineering (RE) process is a recognised research area. However, the practice still relies on office tools rather than RE-tools. Reasons include financial causes and difficulty to evaluate the available RE-tools. This work reports on an experiment trying to validate a previously proposed framework for evaluating RE-tools. The experiment participants used several alternative tools for making requirements specifications, and then evaluated the tools by means of the framework. This enables us to look at the participants’ performance with the various tools, evaluation approaches, and their perceptions about the same tools. The findings indicate advantages of using the evaluation framework, and of combining several evaluation techniques. The experiment indicates that RE-tools provide better support than office tools, leading to higher quality specifications.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Carvallo, J.P., Franch, X., Quer, C.: A Quality Model for Requirements Management Tools, Requirements Engineering for Sociotechnical Systems. Idea Group Publishing (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Feblowitz, M.D., Greenspan, S.J.: Scenario-Based Analysis of COTS Acquisition Impacts. Requirements Engineering 3, 182–201 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Franch, X., Carvallo, I.: A Quality-Model-Based Approach for Describing and Evaluating Software Packages. In: Proceedings of the IEEE Joint International Conference on Requirements Engineering (RE 2002), Germany, pp. 104–111 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Goowin, N.C.: Functionality and Usability. Communications of the ACM 30(3), 229–233 (1987)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Haywood, E., Dart, P.: Towards Requirements for Requirements Modelling Tools. In: Proceedings of the 2nd Australian Workshop on Requirements Engineering, Australia, pp. 61–69 (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Hands, K., Peiris, D.R., Gregor, P.: Development of a Computer-Based Interviewing Tool to Enhance the Requirements Gathering Process. Requirements Engineering 9, 204–216 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Hoffmann, M., Kuhn, N., Weber, M., Bittner, M.: Requirements for Requirements Management Tools. In: Proceedings of the IEEE Joint International Conference on Requirements Engineering (RE 2004), Japan, pp. 301–308 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Karlsson, L., Berander, P., Regnell, B., Wohlin, C.: Requirements Prioritisation: An Experiment on Exhaustive Pair-Wise Comparison versus Planning Game Partitioning. In: Proceedings of the Empirical Assessment in Software Engineering, Scotland (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Kontio, J.: A Case Study in Applying a Systematic Method for COTS Selection. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE 1996 (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Krogstie, J.: A Semiotic Approach to Quality in Requirements Specifications. In: Proceedings IFIP 8.1 Working Conference on Organisational Semiotics (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Kunda, D.: STACE: Social Technical Approach to COTS Software Selection. In: Cechich, A., Piattini, M., Vallecillo, A. (eds.) Component-Based Software Quality - Methods and Techniques. LNCS, pp. 85–98. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Lang, M., Duggan, J.: A Tool to Support Collaborative Software Requirements Management. Requirement Engineering 6(3), 161–172 (2001)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  13. Maiden, N.A., Ncube, C.: Acquiring COTS Software Selection Requirements. IEEE Software, 46–56 (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Matulevičius, R.: Validating an Evaluation Framework for Requirement Engineering Tools. In: Krogstie, J., Halpin, T., Siau, K. (eds.) Information Modeling Methods and Methodologies (Adv. Topics of Database Research), pp. 148–174. Idea Group Publishing (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Matulevičius, R.: Prototype of the Evaluation Framework for Functional Requirements of RE-tools. Accepted for the Proceedings of the 13th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE 2005), Paris, France (August-September 2005)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Matulevičius, R., Sindre, G.: Requirements Engineering Tool Evaluation Approach. Accepted for the Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Information Systems Development (ISD 2005), Karlstad, Sweden (August 2005)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Ochs, M.A., Pfahl, D., Chrobok-Diening, G., Nothhelfer-Kolb, B.: A COTS Acquisition Process: Definition and Application Experience. In: Proceedings of the 11th ESCOM Conference, pp. 335–343 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Pohl, K.: The Three Dimensions of Requirements Engineering: a Framework and its Applications. Information Systems 19(3), 243–258 (1994)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Wohlin, C., Runeson, P., Høst, M., Ohlsson, M.C., Regnell, B., Wesslen, A.: Experimentation in Software Engineering. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht (2002)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Matulevičius, R., Sindre, G. (2005). Tool Support and Specification Quality: Experimental Validation of an RE-Tool Evaluation Framework. In: Akoka, J., et al. Perspectives in Conceptual Modeling. ER 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3770. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11568346_46

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11568346_46

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-29395-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-32239-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics