Toward Requirements and Design Traceability Using Natural Language Processing

Abstract

The paper aimed to address the problem of incompleteness and inconsistency between requirements and design stages, and how to make efficient linking between these stages. Software requirements written in natural languages (NL), Natural Language Processing (NLP) can be used to process requirements. In our research we built a framework that can be used to generate design diagrams from requirements in semi-automatic way, and make traceability between requirements and design phases, and in contrast. Also framework shows how to manage traceability in different levels, and how to apply changes to different artifacts. Many traceability reports can be generated based on developed framework. After Appling this model we obtained good results. Based on our case study the model generate a class diagram depends on central rule engine, and traceability was built and can be managed in visualize manner. We proposed to continue this research as its very critical area by adding more Unified Modeling Language(UML) diagrams, and apply changes directly inside software requirement document.

Requirements and Design Consistency: A Bi-directional Traceability and Natural Language Processing Assisted Approach

“…The domain experts will define rules that can be used to generate UML elements. Here are some examples of used patterns [34]:…”

“…This work is an extension of our previous study [34], which covers the auto-generation of UML diagrams from requirements without going in-depth for inconsistency types. A framework enhanced to minimize the auto-generation of UML diagrams applies consistency between requirements and design.…”