Towards a library of usability requirements

Abstract

1Usability is an essential quality of software products if not an important concern in any business competition. This research discusses an approach to better define and specify reusable usability requirements. This is difficult because requirements specifications tend to be poorly structured, and tend to be introduced late in the development process, which results in major cost and rework. This research starts by identifying concerns related the classification and specification of usability requirements commonly found in literature. Then, it extends the ITLingo RSL language, which is a controlled natural language that allows to specify requirements and tests in a rigorous and structured way, and uses the respective tools to define a library of reusable usability requirements. This research was conducted in a software house operating in the healthcare domain and was applied and evaluated in its family of software products. The most important contribution of this research is the initial proposal of a library of reusable usability requirements, rigorously specified in a language like RSL, which may promote both quality and productivity.