ReqSpecOnto: Investigating Explicit Software  Requirements Specification

Usman Ahmed; Amjad Farooq; Tayyaba Farhat

doi:10.32350/icr.0102.03

Usman Ahmed Foundation University Islamabad
Amjad Farooq University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
Tayyaba Farhat The Superior University Lahore

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32350/icr.0102.03

Keywords: software requirements, requirements specification ontology, upper ontology, ontology engineering, semantic relations

Abstract

Abstract Views: 187

Specification of customer's need as software requirements in natural language create ambiguities in requirements and may also lead to failure of the software project. Generally, customers are unable to define their needs due to lack of domain understanding, technological constraints and knowledge gap between stakeholders and requirements analysts. One of the most effective approaches to minimize these gaps and ambiguities is the usage of ontologies for requirements specification and validation. However, the current approaches are mostly limited only to the translation of ambiguous software requirements. In this paper, we have discussed, analyzed and compared the current usage of these ontologies and found that these approaches are time-consuming and create complexities in the overall development process. We have presented a requirements specification ontology (ReqSpecOnto), bypassing the need for creating an ambiguous Software Requirement Specification (SRS). The upper software requirements ontology is defined in Ontology Web Language (OWL) that can be applied in different software scenarios. A case study of budget and planning system for a state physics lab is selected to specify its requirements as derived ontology from the upper ontology created. Results are validated through HermiT and Pellet reasoners to verify defined relationships and constraints. Finally, SPARQL queries are used to obtain the necessary requirements.

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Author Biographies

Usman Ahmed, Foundation University Islamabad

Usman is currently working as Lecturer in the Department of Software Engineering at Foundation University Islamabad, Sialkot Campus having hands-on experience in both software industry and academia. He is the co-founder of DreamXoft Solutions. His research interests include Software Requirements Engineering, Web Semantics and Knowledge Management

Amjad Farooq, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan

Dr. Amjad Farooq received the Ph.D. degree in computer science from the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) at Lahore, where he is currently an Associate Professor with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. He has a vast experience of teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses at various national universities. He has several national and international publications. His research interests include web engineering, semantic web, machine learning, usability evaluation, and HCI.

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