An Intelligent Tool for Analysis of Imprecise Software Quality Requirements from Different Perspectives

Abstract

The "voice of the customers," identified and translated into design targets, is usually vague and conflicting, especially from multi ple perspectives. In our previous research [2-4,6,7], a fuzzy logic based methodology for imprecise requirements specification and analysis has been developed. However, it is time-consuming and error-prone to analyze imprecise requirements manually based on it It is also hard to maintain requirement consistency manually, especially in a large software project. This paper describes the design and implementation of an intelligent tool for the acquisition, specification and analysis of imprecise software quality requirements and their relationships based on our methodology. Users from different perspectives can specify individual requirements and analyze their inter-perspective and intra- perspective relationships, including conflicts using the Quantitative House of Quality. Based on a fuzzy logic inference engine, the tool can help identify implicit and inconsistent relationships between requirements. Therefore, it facilitates the detection of conflicts as early as possi ble, and provides a solid foundation for trade-off analysis between conflicting requirements.