%0 Conference Paper %1 Denger2003 %A Denger, Christian %A Berry, Daniel M. %A Kamsties, Erik %C Los Alamitos, CA, USA %D 2003 %I IEEE Computer Society %J Software Science, Technology and Engineering, IEEE International Conference on %K imported %P 80 %R http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/SWSTE.2003.1245428 %T Higher Quality Requirements Specifications through Natural Language Patterns %V 0 %X In most current industrial software engineering projects, the majority of requirements documents are written almost entirely in natural language. However, specifying the requirements in natural language has one major drawback, namely the inherent imprecision, i.e., ambiguity, incompleteness, and inaccuracy, of natural language. Since the requirements document forms the basis of the whole development process, such defects can have severe consequences for the whole project. Therefore, it is important to deal with these defects in a requirements specification right from the start. This paper presents an approach for reducing the problem of imprecision in natural language requirements specifications with the use of natural language patterns, which allow formulating requirements sentences in a less ambiguous, more complete, and more accurate way. To ensure the applicability of our approach we based our patterns on a metamodel for requirements statements for embedded systems. With this metamodel, we ensure that all forms of requirements statements are described with the patterns. We validated the effectiveness of the patterns by using them to rewrite a substantial, previously written, requirements specification to eliminate its imprecisions.

@inproceedings{Denger2003, abstract = {In most current industrial software engineering projects, the majority of requirements documents are written almost entirely in natural language. However, specifying the requirements in natural language has one major drawback, namely the inherent imprecision, i.e., ambiguity, incompleteness, and inaccuracy, of natural language. Since the requirements document forms the basis of the whole development process, such defects can have severe consequences for the whole project. Therefore, it is important to deal with these defects in a requirements specification right from the start. This paper presents an approach for reducing the problem of imprecision in natural language requirements specifications with the use of natural language patterns, which allow formulating requirements sentences in a less ambiguous, more complete, and more accurate way. To ensure the applicability of our approach we based our patterns on a metamodel for requirements statements for embedded systems. With this metamodel, we ensure that all forms of requirements statements are described with the patterns. We validated the effectiveness of the patterns by using them to rewrite a substantial, previously written, requirements specification to eliminate its imprecisions.}, added-at = {2009-11-16T14:45:40.000+0100}, address = {Los Alamitos, CA, USA}, author = {Denger, Christian and Berry, Daniel M. and Kamsties, Erik}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/290fed48776f10129c63657582e9e98b6/bugra}, doi = {http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/SWSTE.2003.1245428}, interhash = {d384c808643da8778fb89d438e910102}, intrahash = {90fed48776f10129c63657582e9e98b6}, journal = {Software Science, Technology and Engineering, IEEE International Conference on}, keywords = {imported}, owner = {sjk}, pages = 80, publisher = {IEEE Computer Society}, review = {1.) Imprecision (ambiguity, incompleteness, and inaccuracy, that is) as main problem factor. 2.) Uses event-patterns which are - in their notation - close to Thematic Roles}, timestamp = {2009-11-16T14:45:40.000+0100}, title = {Higher Quality Requirements Specifications through Natural Language Patterns}, volume = 0, year = 2003 }