Abstract:
Stakeholders' understanding of what is expected of
a system evolves with the continuous review and
revision of the requirements document. Problems arise
when no record is kept of their understanding over
long periods of time and when an attempt is made to
share that understanding. This paper presents the
steps of a Qualitative Systematic Approach to
Requirements Analysis (QSARA). The approach has
been designed to assist in the analysis of unstructured
requirements documents expressed in a combination of
natural language text, tables and diagrams. Applying
the proposed approach will produce a graphical
representation of system features. QSARA 's
contributions include assisting stakeholders in
capturing, modifying and sharing their understanding
of documented requirements. It also facilitates the
detection of errors and inter-dependency of features.
The paper includes an example from a pilot study of
the proposed approach that was conducted to validate
its effectiveness.
