A Semiotic Approach to Quality in Requirements Specifications

Abstract

Modelling activities are central in the development and maintenance of computerised information systems. Examples of types of models that are developed are: The existing information systems in the organisation as they are perceived by the participants of the project are modelled during analysis. The future information system (IS) is modelled during requirement specification. The future computerised information system (CIS) is modelled during design. Most proposals for quality goals for requirements models as summarised in (Davis et al. 1993) have included many useful aspects, but unfortunately mostly in the form of unsystematic lists of desired properties. Some researchers (Falkenberg 1996; Lindland Sindre and Sølvberg 1994; Pohl 1994) have attempted to take a more structured approach for understanding quality. This has culminated in the work presented in (Krogstie, Lindland and Sindre 1995a; Krogstie, Lindland and Sindre 1995b; Krogstie and Sølvberg 2000; Krogstie 2001), and we will in this paper integrated this framework with the work of Davis et al, and in this way extend the framework in the area of requirements models. The paper is structured as follows. In the next section, the quality framework is presented briefly. In Section 3, we have specialised the framework based on the quality properties for a software requirements specification (SRS) as presented by Davis. A summary of the results is presented in section 4, before ending the paper pointing to future work.