Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Requirements Analysis: Concept Extraction and Translation of Textual Specifications to Executable Models

  • Conference paper
Natural Language Processing and Information Systems (NLDB 2009)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 5723))

Abstract

Requirements engineering, the first phase of any software development project, is the Achilles’ heel of the whole development process, as requirements documents are often inconsistent and incomplete. In industrial requirements documents, natural language is the main presentation means. This results in the fact that the requirements documents are imprecise, incomplete, and inconsistent. A viable way to detect inconsistencies and omissions in documents is to extract system models from them.

In our previous work we developed approaches translating textual scenarios to message sequence charts (MSCs) and textual descriptions of automata to automata themselves. It turned out that these approaches are highly sensitive to proper definition of terms (communicating objects for MSCs, states for automata).

The goal of the presented paper is a systematic comparison of different term extraction heuristics, as a preliminary stage of MSC or automata extraction. The extracted terms were declared to communicating objects (in the case of MSCs) or to states (in the case of automata). The heuristics were compared on the basis of correctness of resulting MSCs and automata. We came to the conclusion that named entity recognition is the best performing technique for term extraction from requirements documents.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Mich, L., Franch, M., Novi Inverardi, P.: Market research on requirements analysis using linguistic tools. Requirements Engineering 9, 40–56 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Boehm, B.W.: Software Engineering Economics. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs (1981)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. Kof, L.: Scenarios: Identifying missing objects and actions by means of computational linguistics. In: 15th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference, New Delhi, India, pp. 121–130. IEEE Computer Society Conference Publishing Services, Los Alamitos (2007)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  4. Kof, L.: Treatment of Passive Voice and Conjunctions in Use Case Documents. In: Kedad, Z., Lammari, N., Métais, E., Meziane, F., Rezgui, Y. (eds.) NLDB 2007. LNCS, vol. 4592, pp. 181–192. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  5. Kof, L.: From Textual Scenarios to Message Sequence Charts: Inclusion of Condition Generation and Actor Extraction. In: 16th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference, Barcelona, Spain, pp. 331–332. IEEE Computer Society Conference Publishing Services, Los Alamitos (2008)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  6. Kof, L.: Translation of Textual Specifications to Automata by Means of Discourse Context Modeling. In: Glinz, M., Heymans, P. (eds.) REFSQ 2009. LNCS, vol. 5512, pp. 197–211. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  7. Broy, M.: Informatik. In: Eine grundlegende Einführung, vol. 2. Springer, Heidelberg (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Abrial, J.R., Börger, E., Langmaack, H.: Formal Methods for Industrial Applications: Specifying and Programming the Steam Boiler Control. In: Abrial, J.-R., Börger, E., Langmaack, H. (eds.) Dagstuhl Seminar 1995. LNCS, vol. 1165. Springer, Heidelberg (1996)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Abrial, J.R., Börger, E., Langmaack, H.: The steam boiler case study: Competition of formal program specification and development methods. In: Abrial, J.-R., Börger, E., Langmaack, H. (eds.) Dagstuhl Seminar 1995. LNCS, vol. 1165. Springer, Heidelberg (1996)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  10. Buhr, K., Heumesser, N., Houdek, F., Omasreiter, H., Rothermehl, F., Tavakoli, R., Zink, T.: DaimlerChrysler demonstrator: System specification instrument cluster (2004), http://www.empress-itea.org/deliverables/D5.1_Appendix_B_v1.0_Public_Version.pdf (accessed 11.01.2007)

  11. Kof, L.: Natural Language Processing: Mature Enough for Requirements Documents Analysis? In: Montoyo, A., Muńoz, R., Métais, E. (eds.) NLDB 2005. LNCS, vol. 3513, pp. 91–102. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Witte, R., Li, Q., Zhang, Y., Rilling, J.: Ontological Text Mining of Software Documents. In: Kedad, Z., Lammari, N., Métais, E., Meziane, F., Rezgui, Y. (eds.) NLDB 2007. LNCS, vol. 4592, pp. 168–180. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  13. Clark, S., Curran, J.R.: Wide-coverage efficient statistical parsing with ccg and log-linear models. Comput. Linguist. 33, 493–552 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Rupp, C.: Requirements-Engineering und-Management. In: Professionelle, iterative Anforderungsanalyse für die Praxis, 2nd edn. Hanser–Verlag (2002) ISBN 3-446-21960-9

    Google Scholar 

  15. Fabbrini, F., Fusani, M., Gnesi, S., Lami, G.: The linguistic approach to the natural language requirements quality: benefit of the use of an automatic tool. In: 26th Annual NASA Goddard Software Engineering Workshop, Greenbelt, Maryland, pp. 97–105. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Kamsties, E., Berry, D.M., Paech, B.: Detecting ambiguities in requirements documents using inspections. In: Workshop on Inspections in Software Engineering, Paris, France, pp. 68–80 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Chantree, F., Nuseibeh, B., de Roeck, A., Willis, A.: Identifying nocuous ambiguities in natural language requirements. In: RE 2006: Proceedings of the 14th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE 2006), pp. 56–65. IEEE Computer Society, Washington (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Goldin, L., Berry, D.M.: AbstFinder, a prototype natural language text abstraction finder for use in requirements elicitation. Automated Software Eng. 4, 375–412 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Abbott, R.J.: Program design by informal English descriptions. Communications of the ACM 26, 882–894 (1983)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  20. Sawyer, P., Rayson, P., Cosh, K.: Shallow knowledge as an aid to deep understanding in early phase requirements engineering. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. 31, 969–981 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Vadera, S., Meziane, F.: From English to formal specifications. The Computer Journal 37, 753–763 (1994)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Gervasi, V., Zowghi, D.: Reasoning about inconsistencies in natural language requirements. ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol. 14, 277–330 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Smith, R.L., Avrunin, G.S., Clarke, L.A., Osterweil, L.J.: Propel: an approach supporting property elucidation. In: ICSE 2002: Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Software Engineering, pp. 11–21. ACM, New York (2002)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fakultät für Informatik, Technische Universität München, Boltzmannstr. 3, D-85748, Garching bei München, Germany

    Leonid Kof

Authors
  1. Leonid Kof
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Computertechnologie, Technische Universität Wien, A-1040, Wien, Austria

    Helmut Horacek

  2. CNAM- Laboratoire Cédric, 292 Rue St. Martin, 75141, Paris Cedex 03, France

    Elisabeth Métais

  3. Departamento de Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos, Universidad de Alicante, Campus de San Vincente del Raspeig, Apdo 99, 03080, Alicante, Spain

    Rafael Muñoz

  4. Dept. of Computational Linguistics, Saarland University, Germany

    Magdalena Wolska

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Kof, L. (2010). Requirements Analysis: Concept Extraction and Translation of Textual Specifications to Executable Models. In: Horacek, H., Métais, E., Muñoz, R., Wolska, M. (eds) Natural Language Processing and Information Systems. NLDB 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5723. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12550-8_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12550-8_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-12549-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-12550-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation