Framework for Measuring Functional Requirement of SRS

Abstract

Requirement gathering is the first step of any software development process. A Software Requirement Specification (SRS) is a document which collectively represents all requirements of a project which software must include. SRS is the only link between the customers and developers during software development process. Hence it is necessary that it include all essential requirements of the software. Clear requirement statements are part of the quality of a SRS and must be up to a certain standard to ensure the project’s success. The significance of a SRS has led to IEEE publishing a standard, named IEEE 830, to measure the quality of any SRS. The model focuses on attributes like completeness, correctness, preciseness, unambiguity, consistency, understandability, modifiability, verifiability and testability. This research proposes methods of quantitative measurement of heterogeneous SRS quality. It focuses on the measurement of five SRS properties namely preciseness, correctness, consistency, unambiguity and completeness. The quality properties correctness, consistency and preciseness fall under functional requirements and completeness and unambiguity under SRS structure. In this research, rules and measurements have been proposed to assess the functional requirement in SRS. Five quality properties have been assessed: completeness, consistency, correctness, preciseness and unambiguity. Assorted rules were proposed for each quality and each rule is a base for proposed measurement of corresponding quality. The proposed framework describes mathematical formulation of a quantitative measurement by converting the qualitative data into numbers to measure the functional requirements that in turn will improve degree of SRS quality. In order to validate results of proposed framework, SRS of a safety critical system has been evaluated. The results also validated our proposed framework to measure the quality of functional requirements of SRS. In this thesis, rules and measurements have been proposed to assess the structural and the functional requirements in SRS. The proposed framework shows the data flow and mathematical, structural and functional requirements. Many rules have been proposed for each quality; and each rule is a base for proposed measurement of corresponding quality. Results of the research shows that proposed framework is more qualitatively improved in comparison with conventional methods.