Keeping requirements on track via visual analytics

Abstract

For many software projects, keeping requirements on track needs an effective and efficient path from data to decision. Visual analytics creates such a path that enables the human to extract insights by interacting with the relevant information. While various requirements visualization techniques exist, few have produced end-to-end values to practitioners. In this paper, we advance the literature on visual requirements analytics by characterizing its key components and relationships. This allows us to not only assess existing approaches, but also create tool enhancements in a principled manner. We evaluate our enhanced tool supports through a case study where massive, heterogeneous, and dynamic requirements are processed, visualized, and analyzed. In particular, our study illuminates how increased interactivity of requirements visualization could lead to actionable decisions.