Factoring requirement dependencies in software requirement selection using graphs and integer programming

Abstract

Software requirement selection is to find a subset of requirements (so-called optimal set) that gives the highest customer value for a release of software while keeping the cost within the budget. Several industrial studies however, have demonstrated that requirements of software projects are intricately interdependent and these interdependencies impact the values of requirements. Furthermore, the strengths of dependency relations among requirements vary in the context of real-world projects. For instance, requirements can be strongly or weakly interdependent. Therefore, it is important to consider both the existence and the strengths of dependency relations during requirement selection. The existing selection models however, have ignored either requirement dependencies altogether or the strengths of those dependencies. This research proposes an Integer programming model for requirement selection which considers both the existence and strengths of requirement dependencies. We further contribute a graph-based dependency modeling technique for capturing requirement dependencies and the their corresponding strengths. Automated/semi-automated techniques will also be devised to identify requirement dependencies and the strengths of those dependencies.