Problem-Aware Traceability in Goal-Oriented Requirements Engineering

Abstract

Requirements traceability helps to ensure that a re- quirements specification is aligned with the intended stakehold- ers' needs. Such alignment should involve the consideration of why such needs arise, in terms of what problems the stakeholders are faced with, and what kinds of software system may help alle- viate or eliminate the problems. However, little work can be found on requirements traceability that explicitly considers the problems. In this paper, we propose an problem-aware frame- work for establishing requirements traceability, in the context of goal-oriented requirements engineering, which explicitly models problems and their root causes, together with other important ontological concepts, stakeholders' goals, and both functional and non-functional requirements as a solution, and issues. In this framework, ontological concepts are partitioned into layers, re- flecting which traceability links are classified into intra- and in- ter-traceabilities leading to several kinds of links. Additionally, undesirable consequences of inappropriate traceabilities are also categorized. A case study shows some key benefits of the frame- work.