Deriving requirements specifications from the application domain language captured by Language Extended Lexicon.

Abstract

Understanding the context of a software system during requirements specification is a difficult task. Sometimes application domains are very complex, other times the limits of the application are fuzzy. Thus, it is difficult to elicit and write the initial set of requirements. This difficulty frustrates requirements engineers and restricts the process of analysis, which could lead to a final software requirement specification of low quality. In such situations technologically outstanding software systems can be built, but they may fail to suit the needs of the client. Hence, clients are unsatisfied and development projects fail. In this paper we propose a strategy to use the application domain language captured by the Language Extended Lexicon in order to obtain different products related to requirements specification. Products vary from classic requirements which state “the system shall...” to products such as Use Cases and User Stories. The strategy focuses on obtaining the initial set of functional requirements. We believe that by minimizing the gap between the problem and the initial set of requirements, we provide engineers with a preliminary product they can work on and refine to reach the quality needed.