A versatile approach for ranking and modelling of non-functional requirements

Abstract

To effectively encode domain knowledge of customers and implementation strategies of developers in critical computer based system (CBS), requirement engineering plays a significant role. For development of quality software, it is indeed necessary to specify both functional and non-functional requirements (NFRs). However, unlike functional requirements, NFRs are not given much importance and are often generically captured which results in missing out on quality parameters during CBS development. This lacuna can be taken care with inclusion of details regarding NFRs at initial stages of CBS development. NFRs can be addressed by use of interpretive structural modelling (ISM) and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) methods for identification of critical NFRs. Further, new artifacts have been introduced in use case diagram and reference model to document and validate the identified critical NFRs. Each proposed artefact in software requirement specification (SRS) document was initially analysed individually and then compared with other noticeable methodologies.