Tool Supported Detection of Omissions by Comparing Words between Requirements and Design Document

Abstract

This article proposes a tool supported approach to detect omitted requirements that are not implemented in a corresponding architectural design document using difference sets of words or word senses between a software requirements specification document and a software architectural design document. First, the proposed approach extracts sets of single-words, multi-words, and word senses that appear in a requirements specification document but do not appear in the corresponding design document using a natural language processing tool. Then, an architectural design document inspector validates whether each of the specified document with the single-words, multi-words, or word senses are implemented in the corresponding architectural design document using the sets as guides. Evaluation 1 investigated whether omitted requirements can be detected in design documents using the proposed approach. Evaluation 2 investigated the numbers of words that inspectors need to check for the proposed approach. The result of Evaluation 1 shows that omitted requirements are detected in all three pairs for real requirements specification documents and design documents. The result of Evaluation 2 shows that the numbers of words in the difference sets to those in the requirements specification documents vary from 18 to 83 % for the nine pairs of requirements specification documents and design documents.