A software product line (SPL) succeeds because we exploit the similarities between a set of software-intensive systems, together with an understanding of their differences, to reduce development cost, maintenance cost, and user confusion. In SPL engineering, reuse is planned, enabled, and enforced. It is through the development of a set of core assets that reuse is systematically practiced. Requirements assets enhance the effectiveness of reuse since engineers can work on the abstractions closer to the systems' initial concepts. Contemporary SPL requirements engineerin (RE) approaches often adopt the proactive model to build a relatively complete and stable asset base. In practice, the substantial up-front effort and the abrupt transition from existing practices associated with the proactive model present a prohibitive SPL adoption barrier for many organizations that could otherwise benefit. The extractive model overcomes these shortcomings by reusing existing products for the SPL's initial baseline. In this thesis, we present a framework for applying lightweight techniques to extract, model, and analyze a SPL's requirements assets. We define the notion of functional requirements profiles (FRPs) according to the linguistic characterization of a domain's action-oriented concerns, and show that the FRPs can be extracted from a natural language document on the basis of domain-aware lexical affinities that bear a 'verb - direct object' relation. We model the extracted FRPs by analyzing their semantic cases and by extending the orthogonal variability model (OVM). We contribute a set of heuristic rules for uncovering the variation dimensions and dependencies, and discuss merging the OVMs extracted from multiple sources. We relate functional profiles to quality requirements via scenarios, and manage requirements interactions via concept analysis. We present two applications of FRPs to support some other activities in SPL engineering. We conduct several empirical studies to evaluate our framework. The results show that our approach allows the engineers to identify the domain elements more easily and develop the domain models more systematically. Our work fills the void with respect to extracting a SPL's requirements assets, and the main thrust of our work is to promote a set of lightweight, low adoption threshold techniques as a critical enabler for practitioners to capitalize on the order-of-magnitude improvements offered by SPL engineering.

Model Based Testing (MBT) is a new-age test automation technique traditionally used for Functional Black-Box Testing. Its capability of generating test cases by using model developed from the analysis of the abstract behavior of the System under Test is gaining popularity. Many commercial and open source MBT tools are available currently in market. But each one has its own specific way of modeling and test case generation mechanism that is suitable for varied types of systems. Ericsson, a telecommunication equipment provider company, is currently adapting Model Based Testing in some of its divisions for functional testing. Those divisions haven’t yet attempted adapting Model Based Testing for non-functional testing in a full-pledged manner. A comparative study between various MBT tools will help one of the Ericsson’s testing divisions to select the best tool for adapting to its existing test environment. This also helps in improving the quality of testing while reducing cost, time and effort. This thesis work helps Ericsson testing division to select such an effective MBT tool. Based on aspects such as functionality, flexibility, adaptability, performance etc., a comparative study is carried out on various available MBT tools and a few were selected among them: Qtronic, ModelJUnit and Elvior Motes.This thesis also helps to understand the usability of the selected tools for modeling of non-functional requirements using a new method. A brief idea of modeling the non-functional requirements is suggested in this thesis. A System under Test was identified and its functional behavior was modeled along with the non functional requirements in Qtronic and ModelJUnit. An experimental analysis, backed by observations of using the new proposed method indicates that the method is efficient enough to carry out modeling non-functional requirements along with modeling of functional requirements by identifying the appropriate approach.Model Based Testing (MBT) is a new-age test automation technique traditionally used for Functional Black-Box Testing. Its capability of generating test cases by using model developed from the analysis of the abstract behavior of the System under Test is gaining popularity. Many commercial and open source MBT tools are available currently in market. But each one has its own specific way of modeling and test case generation mechanism that is suitable for varied types of systems. Ericsson, a telecommunication equipment provider company, is currently adapting Model Based Testing in some of its divisions for functional testing. Those divisions haven’t yet attempted adapting Model Based Testing for non-functional testing in a full-pledged manner. A comparative study between various MBT tools will help one of the Ericsson’s testing divisions to select the best tool for adapting to its existing test environment. This also helps in improving the quality of testing while reducing cost, time and effort. This thesis work helps Ericsson testing division to select such an effective MBT tool. Based on aspects such as functionality, flexibility, adaptability, performance etc., a comparative study is carried out on various available MBT tools and a few were selected among them: Qtronic, ModelJUnit and Elvior Motes. This thesis also helps to understand the usability of the selected tools for modeling of non-functional requirements using a new method. A brief idea of modeling the non-functional requirements is suggested in this thesis. A System under Test was identified and its functional behavior was modeled along with the non functional requirements in Qtronic and ModelJUnit. An experimental analysis, backed by observations of using the new proposed method indicates that the method is efficient enough to carry out modeling non-functional requirements along with modeling of functional requirements by identifying the appropriate approach.

This thesis provides an approach to use feature modeling with a set of guidelines for requirements definition and decomposition activities of the axiomatic design methodology. A tool that supports the development of feature models and modeling of the Axiomatic Design activities is implemented to be utilized for guiding the designer. Axiomatic Design suggested four domains of information in the transformation of the problem definition to the solution, and provided mechanisms for supporting the mapping among some of those domains. The approach suggested in this thesis fills an important gap, which is the transition from the customer needs to functional requirements, in axiomatic design. A case study is carried out in order to analyze advantages and disadvantages of the proposed approach.

Functional requirements for electronic recordkeeping systems have emerged as a principal tool for archival and records management professionals to communicate electronic recordkeeping standards to both records creators and computer systems designers. Various functional or model requirements have been developed by government and international organizations around the world to serve as tools for the design, evaluation, and implementation of recordkeeping systems that will satisfy these recordkeeping requirements. Through their evolution, functional requirements have become complex guiding documents covering an array of recordkeeping systems and preservation interests. Often misunderstood or simply ignored, the recordkeeping requirements at the heart of these specifications are crucial for ensuring the creation, maintenance, and preservation of electronic or digital records over time, for operational, accountability, archival, and historical purposes. This thesis examines the origins and evolution of these functional requirements, particularly through the contributions of the Pittsburgh project’s study of electronic records as evidence and the University of British Columbia project’s study of the preservation of trustworthy electronic records, which together articulated key foundational assumptions about electronic or digital recordkeeping and the structure of many of the functional requirements circulating today. By looking at their conception, development, and evolution, this thesis sheds light on the content, structure, and context of the most widely-used available functional requirements. It evaluates the merits of their often competing assumptions and deliveries, and suggests that none represent a “silver bullet” that addresses the issues associated with electronic records, as each has limitations resting both with the ability of users to implement the requirements and with the rapid and ever-changing landscape of electronic communication.

Functional requirements for electronic recordkeeping systems have emerged as a principal tool for archival and records management professionals to communicate electronic recordkeeping standards to both records creators and computer systems designers. Various functional or model requirements have been developed by government and international organizations around the world to serve as tools for the design, evaluation, and implementation of recordkeeping systems that will satisfy these recordkeeping requirements. Through their evolution, functional requirements have become complex guiding documents covering an array of recordkeeping systems and preservation interests. Often misunderstood or simply ignored, the recordkeeping requirements at the heart of these specifications are crucial for ensuring the creation, maintenance, and preservation of electronic or digital records over time, for operational, accountability, archival, and historical purposes. This thesis examines the origins and evolution of these functional requirements, particularly through the contributions of the Pittsburgh project’s study of electronic records as evidence and the University of British Columbia project’s study of the preservation of trustworthy electronic records, which together articulated key foundational assumptions about electronic or digital recordkeeping and the structure of many of the functional requirements circulating today. By looking at their conception, development, and evolution, this thesis sheds light on the content, structure, and context of the most widely-used available functional requirements. It evaluates the merits of their often competing assumptions and deliveries, and suggests that none represent a “silver bullet” that addresses the issues associated with electronic records, as each has limitations resting both with the ability of users to implement the requirements and with the rapid and ever-changing landscape of electronic communication.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-12T20:22:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MARCELA LEITE.pdf: 8156863 bytes, checksum: 678c8b87d0e5cb9954f9b90176517400 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-21 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This work proposes a design approach for FPGA-based embedded system. Such an approach integrates concepts and techniques from Model Driven Engineering and Aspect Oriented Software Development approaches, in order to systematize and automate the design process. AOSD concepts are used to handle non-functional requirements in FPGA-based embedded system development, in conjunction with a set of metrics to control the project constraints. A subset of relevant non-functional requirements for FPGA-based embedded system, as well as a set of metrics to evaluate these requirements, have been identified through a survey of literature. This subset of non-functional requirements composes an aspect-oriented framework for the FPGA platform, including aspects and their implementation in VHDL. In this sense, new aspects have been included in the Distributed Real-time Aspects Framework (DERAF). Moreover, to support the proposed approach, a code generation tool was enhanced to enable the generation of VHDL descriptions from UML models. A set of mapping rules have been defined to perform this UML-to- VHDL transformation. In order to validate the proposed approach, three case studies have been performed. The obtained results demonstrate the feasibility of combining AOSD and MDE in order to handle non-functional requirements in the design of systems through hardware description languages, such as VHDL. In addition, the modularization achieved by using AOSD affects positively the final embedded system, improving the overall system performance, as well as it contributes to the fulfillment of system requirements, time-to-market, reusability and manutenability of design artifacts, such as models and component descriptions. / Este trabalho apresenta uma abordagem de desenvolvimento de sistemas embarcados implementados em FPGA, que agrega técnicas de MDE e AOSD com o objetivo de sistematizar e automatizar o processo de desenvolvimento. Propõe-se o tratamento e gerenciamento dos requisitos não funcionais para sistemas embarcados desenvolvidos na plataforma FPGA, com o uso do paradigma orientado a aspectos e de métricas que possibilitem o controle no cumprimento das restrições do projeto. Para tanto, a geração do código VHDL a partir do modelo especificado na UML foi implementada neste trabalho. Para essa transformação, um conjunto de regras de mapeamento dos elementos da UML para VHDL foi criado. A partir da análise da literatura foi detalhado um conjunto de requisitos não funcionais para projetos implementados em FPGA, que constituem o framework de aspectos para essa plataforma. Novos aspectos foram incluídos no DERAF e implementadas regras de mapeamento para esses. Foram desenvolvidos três estudos de caso utilizando a abordagem e o conjunto de regras de mapeamento criado, nos quais foram implementados três aspectos que tratam requisitos não funcionais dessas aplicações. Com as regras de mapeamento implementadas, foi possível a geração completa do código VHDL, funcional e sintetizável. O uso das métricas identificadas permitiu uma avaliação mais precisa da eficácia da utilização da abordagem proposta. Os resultados encontrados, mostram que a utilização da orientação a aspectos para o tratamento de requisitos não funcionais na descrição de hardware em VHDL, melhora o desempenho do sistema, tem alto impacto sobre o sistema final e contribui para o atendimento de requisitos de projeto como time-to-market, reusabilidade e manutenabilidade

A inovação é fator crucial para o crescimento da economia de uma nação e pode ser vista como o resultado bem articulado das necessidades do consumidor frente a possibilidades de novas tecnologias, novos produtos e novos serviços. A eficácia no entendimento das necessidades dos usuários é considerada um dos principais pilares nos estudos em inovação, principalmente no entendimento das necessidades e requisitos nas fases iniciais do processo de desenvolvimento de novos produtos. No entanto, como consequência da falta de informação direta sobre suas reais necessidades, as informações dos usuários são reduzidas a requisitos generalistas, atendendo essencialmente a aspectos normativos, representados em manuais de referência e diretrizes de design, desconectados do contexto cultural, ambiental e de trabalho. Assim, tem-se como objetivo principal desta tese uma proposta de avaliação de requisitos funcionais e emocionais do produto, sob a perspectiva do usuário. Foram abordados métodos qualitativos (como entrevistas, grupo focado e estudo de caso), bem como métodos quantitativos (como análise multivariada de dados). Esta pesquisa apresenta cinco artigos relacionados ao tema. Ressalta-se como principais resultados: (i) uma revisão de conceitos que apresentam como a percepção do usuário contribui para a inovação no contexto de desenvolvimento de produto; (ii) uma classificação de métodos de avaliação de requisitos de acordo com os requisitos do usuário; (iii) um modelo conceitual de integração dos métodos QFD (Desdobramento da Função Qualidade) e Engenharia Kansei, relacionados aos requisitos funcionais e emocionais respectivamente, aplicado ao caso de um produto da indústria de higiene e beleza; (iv) proposta e validação de um instrumento de coleta de dados, para avaliação da sessão de hemodiálise, sob a perspectiva do paciente, considerando os requisitos de usabilidade, emocionais e econômicos; (v) avaliação da sessão de hemodiálise, a partir da percepção dos pacientes, considerando o atendimento a requisitos de usabilidade, emocionais e econômicos. Como principal conclusão, a tese apresenta uma avaliação de produtos em seu contexto de uso de acordo com as funções prática e estética avaliadas de forma combinada, numa perspectiva multidimensional. Desta forma é possível extrapolar diretrizes de melhorias em produtos e prover inovação em projetos futuros. / Innovation is a crucial factor for growth of the economy of a nation and can be seen as the result of well-articulated consumer needs front the possibilities of new technologies, new products and new services. The effectiveness in understanding the users’ needs is considered one of the main pillars in the studies about innovation, especially in understanding the needs and requirements in the early stages of the new products development process. However, as a result of the lack of direct information about their real needs, the information of users are reduced to generalists requirements, essentially serving normative aspects, represented in reference manuals and design guidelines, disconnected from the cultural context, and environmental work. Therefore, the main objective of this thesis is a proposal for evaluation of functional and emotional requirements of the product, under the user's perspective. Qualitative methods were addressed (such as interviews, focus group and case study) and quantitative methods (such as multivariate data analysis). This research presents five articles related to the topic. It is emphasized as main results: (i) a review of concepts which show how the perception of the user contributes to innovation in product development context; (ii) a classification of requirements assessment methods according to users’ requirements; (iii) a conceptual model for integration of QFD (Quality Function Deployment) and Kansei Engineering methods, that is related to functional and emotional requirements respectively, was applied to the case of a product from hygiene and beauty industry; (iv) proposal and validation of a data collection instrument for evaluation of hemodialysis session, under the patient's perspective, considering the usability, emotional and economic requirements; (v) evaluation of the hemodialysis session, from the patients’ perception, considering attending to usability, emotional and economic requirements. As main conclusion, the thesis presents a product evaluation in its context of use, according to the aesthetic and practical functions which was evaluated in combination, in a multidimensional perspective. Thus it is possible to extrapolate guidelines for improvements in products and provide innovation in future projects.

O crescente aumento da complexidade dos sistemas embarcados demanda consigo a necessidade do uso de novas abordagens que acelerem o seu desenvolvimento, como por exemplo, o desenvolvimento baseado em modelos. Essas novas abordagens buscam aumentar o nível de abstração, utilizando conceitos de orientação a objetos e UML para modelar um software embarcado. Porém, com o aumento do nível de abstração, o projetista de software embarcado não possui a ideia exata do impacto de suas decisões de modelagem em questões importantes, como desempenho, consumo de energia, entre tantas outras que são de suma importância em um projeto embarcado. Dessa forma, se fazem necessárias técnicas de análise e/ou estimação de projeto que, em um ambiente de desenvolvimento mais abstrato, possam auxiliar o projetista a tomar melhores decisões nas etapas inicias de projeto, garantindo assim, as funcionalidades (requisitos funcionais) e os requisitos não funcionais do sistema embarcado. Neste trabalho, propõe-se estimar os requisitos não funcionais de um sistema embarcado a partir de informações (métricas) extraídas das etapas iniciais do projeto. Pretende-se com isso auxiliar o projetista na exploração do espaço de projeto já nos estágios iniciais do processo de desenvolvimento, através de uma rápida realimentação sobre o impacto de uma decisão de projeto no desempenho da aplicação em uma dada plataforma de execução. Os resultados experimentais mostram a aplicabilidade da abordagem, principalmente para um ambiente de evolução e manutenção de projetos de software, onde se tem um histórico de métricas de aplicações semelhantes para serem usadas como dados de treinamento. Neste cenário, a abordagem proposta possui acurácia de pelo menos 98% para as estimativas apresentadas ao projetista. Em um cenário heterogêneo, assumindo o uso da metodologia em um sistema diferente daquele usado para treinamento, a acurácia do método de estimação cai para pelo menos 80%. / The increasing complexity of embedded systems demands the use of new approaches to accelerate their development, such as model-driven engineering. Such approaches aim at increasing the level of abstraction using concepts such as object-orientation and UML for modeling the embedded software. However, with the increase of the abstraction level, the embedded software developer looses controllability and predictability over important issues such as performance, power dissipation and memory usage for a specific embedded platform. Thus, new design estimation techniques that can be used in the early development stages become necessary. Such a strategy may help the designer to make better decisions in the early stages of the project, thus ensuring the final system meets both functional and non-functional requirements. In this work, we propose an estimation technique of non-functional requirements for embedded systems, based on data (metrics) extracted from early stages of the project. The proposed methodology allows to better explore different design options in the early steps of software development process and can therefore provide a fast and yet accurate feedback to the developer. Experimental results show the applicability of the approach, particularly for software evolution and maintenance, which has a history of similar applications metrics to be used as training data. In this scenario, the accuracy of the estimation is at least of 98%. In a heterogeneous scenario, where the estimation is performed for a system that is different from the one used during training, the accuracy drops to 80%.

O crescente aumento da complexidade dos sistemas embarcados demanda consigo a necessidade do uso de novas abordagens que acelerem o seu desenvolvimento, como por exemplo, o desenvolvimento baseado em modelos. Essas novas abordagens buscam aumentar o nível de abstração, utilizando conceitos de orientação a objetos e UML para modelar um software embarcado. Porém, com o aumento do nível de abstração, o projetista de software embarcado não possui a ideia exata do impacto de suas decisões de modelagem em questões importantes, como desempenho, consumo de energia, entre tantas outras que são de suma importância em um projeto embarcado. Dessa forma, se fazem necessárias técnicas de análise e/ou estimação de projeto que, em um ambiente de desenvolvimento mais abstrato, possam auxiliar o projetista a tomar melhores decisões nas etapas inicias de projeto, garantindo assim, as funcionalidades (requisitos funcionais) e os requisitos não funcionais do sistema embarcado. Neste trabalho, propõe-se estimar os requisitos não funcionais de um sistema embarcado a partir de informações (métricas) extraídas das etapas iniciais do projeto. Pretende-se com isso auxiliar o projetista na exploração do espaço de projeto já nos estágios iniciais do processo de desenvolvimento, através de uma rápida realimentação sobre o impacto de uma decisão de projeto no desempenho da aplicação em uma dada plataforma de execução. Os resultados experimentais mostram a aplicabilidade da abordagem, principalmente para um ambiente de evolução e manutenção de projetos de software, onde se tem um histórico de métricas de aplicações semelhantes para serem usadas como dados de treinamento. Neste cenário, a abordagem proposta possui acurácia de pelo menos 98% para as estimativas apresentadas ao projetista. Em um cenário heterogêneo, assumindo o uso da metodologia em um sistema diferente daquele usado para treinamento, a acurácia do método de estimação cai para pelo menos 80%. / The increasing complexity of embedded systems demands the use of new approaches to accelerate their development, such as model-driven engineering. Such approaches aim at increasing the level of abstraction using concepts such as object-orientation and UML for modeling the embedded software. However, with the increase of the abstraction level, the embedded software developer looses controllability and predictability over important issues such as performance, power dissipation and memory usage for a specific embedded platform. Thus, new design estimation techniques that can be used in the early development stages become necessary. Such a strategy may help the designer to make better decisions in the early stages of the project, thus ensuring the final system meets both functional and non-functional requirements. In this work, we propose an estimation technique of non-functional requirements for embedded systems, based on data (metrics) extracted from early stages of the project. The proposed methodology allows to better explore different design options in the early steps of software development process and can therefore provide a fast and yet accurate feedback to the developer. Experimental results show the applicability of the approach, particularly for software evolution and maintenance, which has a history of similar applications metrics to be used as training data. In this scenario, the accuracy of the estimation is at least of 98%. In a heterogeneous scenario, where the estimation is performed for a system that is different from the one used during training, the accuracy drops to 80%.

A inovação é fator crucial para o crescimento da economia de uma nação e pode ser vista como o resultado bem articulado das necessidades do consumidor frente a possibilidades de novas tecnologias, novos produtos e novos serviços. A eficácia no entendimento das necessidades dos usuários é considerada um dos principais pilares nos estudos em inovação, principalmente no entendimento das necessidades e requisitos nas fases iniciais do processo de desenvolvimento de novos produtos. No entanto, como consequência da falta de informação direta sobre suas reais necessidades, as informações dos usuários são reduzidas a requisitos generalistas, atendendo essencialmente a aspectos normativos, representados em manuais de referência e diretrizes de design, desconectados do contexto cultural, ambiental e de trabalho. Assim, tem-se como objetivo principal desta tese uma proposta de avaliação de requisitos funcionais e emocionais do produto, sob a perspectiva do usuário. Foram abordados métodos qualitativos (como entrevistas, grupo focado e estudo de caso), bem como métodos quantitativos (como análise multivariada de dados). Esta pesquisa apresenta cinco artigos relacionados ao tema. Ressalta-se como principais resultados: (i) uma revisão de conceitos que apresentam como a percepção do usuário contribui para a inovação no contexto de desenvolvimento de produto; (ii) uma classificação de métodos de avaliação de requisitos de acordo com os requisitos do usuário; (iii) um modelo conceitual de integração dos métodos QFD (Desdobramento da Função Qualidade) e Engenharia Kansei, relacionados aos requisitos funcionais e emocionais respectivamente, aplicado ao caso de um produto da indústria de higiene e beleza; (iv) proposta e validação de um instrumento de coleta de dados, para avaliação da sessão de hemodiálise, sob a perspectiva do paciente, considerando os requisitos de usabilidade, emocionais e econômicos; (v) avaliação da sessão de hemodiálise, a partir da percepção dos pacientes, considerando o atendimento a requisitos de usabilidade, emocionais e econômicos. Como principal conclusão, a tese apresenta uma avaliação de produtos em seu contexto de uso de acordo com as funções prática e estética avaliadas de forma combinada, numa perspectiva multidimensional. Desta forma é possível extrapolar diretrizes de melhorias em produtos e prover inovação em projetos futuros. / Innovation is a crucial factor for growth of the economy of a nation and can be seen as the result of well-articulated consumer needs front the possibilities of new technologies, new products and new services. The effectiveness in understanding the users’ needs is considered one of the main pillars in the studies about innovation, especially in understanding the needs and requirements in the early stages of the new products development process. However, as a result of the lack of direct information about their real needs, the information of users are reduced to generalists requirements, essentially serving normative aspects, represented in reference manuals and design guidelines, disconnected from the cultural context, and environmental work. Therefore, the main objective of this thesis is a proposal for evaluation of functional and emotional requirements of the product, under the user's perspective. Qualitative methods were addressed (such as interviews, focus group and case study) and quantitative methods (such as multivariate data analysis). This research presents five articles related to the topic. It is emphasized as main results: (i) a review of concepts which show how the perception of the user contributes to innovation in product development context; (ii) a classification of requirements assessment methods according to users’ requirements; (iii) a conceptual model for integration of QFD (Quality Function Deployment) and Kansei Engineering methods, that is related to functional and emotional requirements respectively, was applied to the case of a product from hygiene and beauty industry; (iv) proposal and validation of a data collection instrument for evaluation of hemodialysis session, under the patient's perspective, considering the usability, emotional and economic requirements; (v) evaluation of the hemodialysis session, from the patients’ perception, considering attending to usability, emotional and economic requirements. As main conclusion, the thesis presents a product evaluation in its context of use, according to the aesthetic and practical functions which was evaluated in combination, in a multidimensional perspective. Thus it is possible to extrapolate guidelines for improvements in products and provide innovation in future projects.