A Knowledge Management Framework in Software Requirements Engineering Based on the SECI Model

Azeddine Chikh

.

DOI: 10.4236/jsea.2011.412084                

Abstract

Software requirements engineering deals with: elicitation, specification, and validation of software requirements. Furthermore there is a need to facilitate collaboration amongst stakeholders and analysts. Fewer efforts were deployed to support them in performing their job on a day to day basis. To solve this problem we use knowledge management for software requirements engineering. This paper proposes a knowledge management framework, based on the SECI model of knowledge creation, aimed at exploiting tacit and explicit knowledge related to software requirements within a given software project. The core part of the proposed framework is a set of four sub systems “Socializer”; “Externalizer”; “Combiner”; and “Internalizer”, attached to a couple of domain ontologies and a set of knowledge assets. Indeed we aim to facilitate a semantic based interpretation of knowledge assets related to software requirements by restricting their interpretation through the application domain and software requirements ontologies. We anticipate that this framework would be very helpful for stakeholders as well as analysts to exchange and manage their knowledge within a given software project. We show in the case study, through a virtual payroll project using the two-step approach: domain level requirements plus design level requirements, how the key elicitation SRE techniques are used during the first phase of domain requirements elicitation through the four subsystems of our framework.

Keywords

Software Requirements Engineering, Knowledge Management, Domain Ontologies, SECI Model

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	B. Wouters, D. Deridder and E. Van Paesschen, “The Use of Ontologies as a Backbone for Use Case Management,” Proceedings of the European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming ECOOP, Workshop: Objects and Classifications, a Natural Convergence, Sophia Antipolis and Cannes, 2000.
[2]	V. Mayank, N. Kositsyna and M. Austin, “Requirements Engineering and the Semantic Web, Part II. Representation, Management, and Validation of Requirements and System-Level Architectures,” ISR Technical Report, University of Maryland, Baltimore, 2004
[3]	J. Lasheras, R. Valencia-García, J. T. Fernández-Breis and A. Toval, “Modeling Reusable Security Requirements Based on an Ontology Framework,” The Journal of Research and Practice in Information Technology, Vol. 41, No. 2, 2009, pp. 119-133.
[4]	H. Kaiya and M. Saeki, “Using Domain Ontology as Domain Knowledge for Requirements Elicitation,” Proceedings of the 14th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference, Minneapolis/St. Paul, 11-15 September 2006, pp. 189-198.
[5]	I. Sommerville, “Software Engineering,” Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, 2011
[6]	P. Bourque and R. Dupuis, “Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge,” IEEE Computer Society, Washington DC, 2004.
[7]	D. D. Champeaux, D. Lea and P. Faure, “Object-Oriented System Development,” Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc. Boston, 1993.
[8]	IEEE Std. 830-1998, “IEEE Recommended Practice for Software Requirements Specifications, IEEE Computer Society,” Software Engineering Standards Committee, 20 October 1998, No. SH94654.
[9]	D. Herlea, “Users Involvement in Requirements Engineering Process,” Proceedings of the 10th Annual Knowledge Acquisition Workshop KAW96, Banff, 6-14 November 1996. http://ksi.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/KAW/KAW96/herlea/FINAL.html
[10]	H. J. Happel and S. Seedorf, “Applications of Ontologies in Software Engineering,” Proceedings of the international Workshop on Semantic Web Enabled Software Engineering SWESE, Athens, 5-9 November 2006. http://km.aifb.kit.edu/ws/swese2006/final/happel_full.pdf
[11]	B. Nuseibeh and S. Easterbrook, “Requirements Engineering: A Roadmap,” Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Engineering ICSE, Limerick, 4-11 June 2000. http://mcs.open.ac.uk/ban25/papers/sotar.re.pdf
[12]	T. R. Gruber, “Toward Principles for the Design of Ontologies Used for Knowledge Sharing,” International Journal Human-Computer Studies, Vol. 43, No. 5-6, 1995, pp. 907-928. doi:10.1006/ijhc.1995.1081
[13]	B. H. C. Cheng and J. M. Atlee, “Research Directions in Requirements Engineering, Future of Software Engineering FOSE,” Proceedings of ICSE, IEEE Computer Society, Minneapolis, 2007, pp. 285-303.
[14]	B. Hoenderboom and P. Liang, “A Survey of Semantic Wikis for Requirements Engineering,” Technical Report RUG-SEARCH-09-L03, SEARCH, University of Groningen, Groningen, 2009.
[15]	P. Hildreth and C. Kimble, “The Duality of Knowledge,” Information Research, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2002.
[16]	I. Nonaka and H. Takeuchi, “The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation,” Oxford University Press, New York, 1995.
[17]	A. Cabrera and E. F. Cabrera, “Knowledge-Sharing Dilemmas,” Organization Studies, Vol. 23, No. 5, 2002, pp. 687-710. doi:10.1177/0170840602235001
[18]	M. K. Smith, “Michael Polanyi and Tacit Knowledge, the Encyclopedia of Informal Education,” 2003. http://www.infed.org/thinkers/polanyi.htm
[19]	E. Wenger, R. McDermott and W. M. Snyder, “Cultivating Communities of Practice,” Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 2002.
[20]	M. A. Chatti, R. Klamma, M. Jarke and A. Naeve, “The Web 2.0 Driven SECI Model Based Learning Process,” Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies ICALT-2007, Niigata, 18-20 July 2007, pp. 780-782.
[21]	C. Hoadley and P. G. Kilner, “Using Technology to Transform Communities of Practice into Knowledge-Building Communities,” SIGGROUP Bulletin, Vol. 25, No. 1, 2005, pp. 31-40.
[22]	I. Nonaka, R. Toyama and N. Konno, “SECI, Ba and Leadership: A Unified Model Knowledge Creation,” Long Range Planning, Vol. 33, No 1, 2000, pp. 5-34. doi:10.1016/S0024-6301(99)00115-6
[23]	A. Naeve, P. Yli-Luoma, M. Kravcik and M. D. Lytras, “A Modeling Approach to Study Learning Processes with a Focus on Knowledge Creation,” International Journal Technology Enhanced Learning, Vol. 1, No. 1-2, 2008, pp. 1-34. doi:10.1504/IJTEL.2008.020228
[24]	J. Wan, H. Zhang, D. Wan and D. Y. Huang, “Research on Knowledge Creation in Software Requirement Development,” Journal of Software Engineering & Applications, Vol. 3, 2010, pp. 487-494.
[25]	M. I. Kamata, “Software Requirements Elicited through Human-Centric Chance Discovery,” AAAI Fall Symposium Technical Report FS-02-01, 2002, pp. 99-105.
[26]	K. E. Emam, S. Quintin and N. H. Madhavji, “User Participation in the Requirements Engineering Process: An empirical Study,” Requirements Engineering Journal, Vol. 1, 1996, pp. 4-26. doi:10.1007/BF01235763
[27]	S. Lauesen, “Software Requirements: Styles and Techniques,” Addison-Wesley, Boston, 2002.
[28]	T. Riechert, K. Lauenroth, J. Lehmann and S. Auer, “Towards Semantic based Requirements Engineering,” Proceedings of 7th International Conference on Knowledge Management I-KNOW’07, Graz, 5-7 September 2007, pp. 144-151.
[29]	K. Pohl, “Requirements Engineering,” Dpunkt Verlag, Grundlagen, Prinzipien, Techniken, 2007.
[30]	T. Riechert and T. Berger, “Leveraging Semantic Data Wikis for Distributed Requirements Elicitation,” Proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Wikis for Software Engineering Wikis4SE at 31st International Conference on Software Engineering ICSE’09, IEEE Computer Society, Vancouver, 19 May 2009, pp. 12-19.
[31]	B. Decker, E. Ras, J. Rech, P. Jaubert and M. Rieth, “Wiki-Based Stakeholder Participation in Requirements Engineering,” IEEE Software, Vol. 24, No. 2, 2007, pp. 28-35. doi:10.1109/MS.2007.60
[32]	S. Lohmann, P. Heim, S. Auer, S. Dietzold and T. Riechert, “Semantifying Requirements Engineering—The Softwiki Approach,” Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Semantic Technologies I-SEMANTICS, ACM, Graz, 3-5 September 2008, pp. 182-185.
[33]	J. Trinkunas and O. Vasilecas, “A Graph Oriented Model for Ontology Transformation into Conceptual Data Model,” Information Technology and Control, Vol. 36, No. 1A, 2007, pp. 126-132.