Improving information retrieval-based concept location using contextual relationships

For software engineers to find all the relevant program elements implementing a business concept, existing techniques based on information retrieval (IR) fall short in providing adequate solutions. Such techniques usually only consider the conceptual relations based on lexical similarities during concept mapping. However, it is also fundamental to consider the contextual relationships existing within an application's business domain to aid in concept location. As an example, this paper proposes to use domain specific ontological relations during concept mapping and location activities when implementing business requirements.