Evaluating Implementation of Functional Requirements in Software Architectures

Reliance on Non-Functional Requirements (NFR) to evaluate systems leads to ambiguous results, limited (if not impossible) reproducibility of the analysis, and unclear correlations to the desired qualities of a system. Yet, Functional Requirements (FR) are essential to a system's functionality, because they describe the relationship between input, output, and state, as well as define what a system should do to achieve certain NFR (that is, qualities). To reach clear conclusions about a DI and SSI system, there is a need for an evaluation framework that is based on FR. Building on FR and NFR, a reproducible evaluation framework is necessary not only for future researchers to understand existing systems but also to convey a coherent message about technologies to the end-user, improving transparency and trust in new technology.

This thesis will develop an evaluation approach for assessing DI and SSI systems based on their adherence to SSI principles and related FR. The thesis will involve the reformulation of existing FR in a formal description, reflecting the desirable behavior of the architecture, followed by the evaluation of existing architectures. 

Research questions:

• How can FR be formalized and used for the evaluation of DI and SSI applications?
• What is the methodology for DI and SSI applications evaluation?

Sources to Consider:

[1] H. Post, C. Sinz, F. Merz, T. Gorges and T. Kropf, "Linking Functional Requirements and Software Verification",2009 17th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference, Atlanta, GA, USA, 2009, pp. 295-302, doi: 10.1109/RE.2009.43

[2] A. Goknil, I. Kurtev and K. Van Den Berg, "Generation and validation of traces between requirements and architecture based on formal trace semantics", Journal of Systems and Software, 88, 2014, pp.112-137.

[3] S. Liu, Y. Chen, F. Nagiya and J. A. McDermid, "Formal Specification-Based Inspection for Verification of Programs", IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 38(5), 2012. 

• Requirements engineering 
• Formal methods / logic