Measuring Requirements Quality

The quality of any product depends on the quality of the raw materials fed into it; poor requirements cannot lead to excellent software.

Quality measurement shows you where to invest to realize improvements [8].The Consequences of requirement errors usually don’t become apparent until late in development process [8].

One of the major challenges in today’s software development is the issues related to the quality of end product that is produced. Quality of a Software Product is affected by many constraints, of which security, safety and reliability are most concerned. Software products are very vulnerable. Even a single ambiguous requirement or omitted or bad requirement may cause Sevier damages and end with a major catastrophe of Millions of Dollars loss and waste in Effort and Time spent in developing a product which is of no use. So, what is the major area of interest which we left unexplored? And that is hindering us in developing a Quality Software Product. This area of interest is mostly left unexplored because of its Abstract and complex nature.

The main objective of this paper will revolve around the concept of measuring the requirements quality. This paper shall explore the methods and analogy techniques to measure the requirements quality. The domain of this study is exploring and presenting a most effective way of measuring the Requirements quality. During the study these key concepts were identified: quality of requirements collected and validity and reliability for requirements quality measurements.

Background:

Though most of popular software requirements technologies support only functional requirements, it is extremely important that Measuring quality requirements be clearly defined, especially for critical systems’ software. In order to explore our knowledge in identifying the “Measuring Quality Requirements”, it would be better to define the terms independently and integrate and define a most acceptable definition for this term “Measuring Quality Requirements”.

  1. Quality: the totality of characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated and implied needs[2]
  2. Requirements: Requirements are the external specification of specific needs that a product is expected to satisfy.[2]
  3. Measurement (software): Measurement is the continuous process of defining, collecting, and analyzing data on the software development process and its products in order to control and understand the process and its products, and to supply meaningful information to improve that process and its products.[6] -Barry Boehm

“Measuring Requirements Quality- Definition: It is the continuous process of defining, collecting, and analyzing data on the requirements that are the external specifications of specific needs with the totality of characteristics of requirements that bear its ability to satisfy stated and implied need.” [2][2][6]

Note: The definition of Measuring Requirements Quality is integrated from the three definitions defined above.

References:

  1. Software Measurement and Estimation: A Practical Approach , Linda M. Laird; M. Carol Brennan , Wiley-IEEE Computer Society Pr, 2006 Edition, [ISBN:0-471-67622-5]
  2. http://www.sei.cmu.edu/community/rhas-workshop/2004/azuma.pdf
  3. http://www.psmsc.com/UG2002/Presentations/03LaymanMeasurementAndCMMs.pdf
  4. http://www.sei.cmu.edu/pub/documents/07.reports/07tn002.pdf
  5. Lefefingwell, D. and Widrig, D., Managing Software Requirements, Addison Wesley, 2000
  6. Quality Software Project Management (Software Quality Institute Series)
    Futrell, Robert T.; Shafer, Donald F.; Shafer, Linda Isabell [ISBN: 0130912972], chapter 21 Software metrics
  7. Software Requirements Engineering by Wiegers, Microsoft Press, 2nd edition, [ISBN:0-7356-1879-8].
  8. Customer-centered Products: Creating Successful Products Through Smart Requirements Management, By Ivy F. Hooks, Kristin A. Farry, Contributor Kristin A. Farry, Published by AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, 2001 ISBN 0814405681, 9780814405680]
  9. https://www.thedacs.com/techs/abstracts/abstract.php?dan=347009

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