COTSAware Requirements Engineering: The CARE Process

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COTS-Aware Requirements Engineering The CARE
Process

• 2nd International Workshop on Requirements
  Engineering for COTS Components
• Lawrence Chung, The University of Texas at
  DallasKendra Cooper, The University of Texas
  at Dallas Sam Courtney, Rational
  software, IBM Software Group

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Today...

• A brief look at
• The goals of the CARE research project
• The CARE process
• The CARE knowledge base
• process model, artifacts for system under
  development, COTS components...
• The knowledge base for a Home Appliance Control
  System example
• Conclusions and future work

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Goals of CARE Research Project

• Provide a set of models, techniques and a tool
  set for the
• effective use of COTS components, including
• a scheme for representing stakeholders as
  intentional agents (i.e., agents that make
  decisions), the high-level functional and
  non-functional requirements of such agents as
  goals, and the software architecture
• a scheme for matching, and detecting and
  resolving discrepancies between the capabilities
  of COTS components and the needs of the
  stakeholders associated with the system under
  development
• qualitative and quantitative decision making
  approaches for evaluating and selecting COTS
  components
• formal product and process models that are
  consistent, complete, and correct
• knowledge-based tool support, the CARE Assistant,
  to assist the developers

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Overview of the CARE Process
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The CARE Knowledge base
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An instantiated view Home Appliance Control
System example
COTS Component Repository
SUD Product Model Repository
Display Indoor
Security
Usability

Java Authentication and

Light Sequence
C
Authorization Service


Data Integrity
Non-repudiation
PDA
C
Secure
R
A
Easy to
Variety of
Access
Interfaces
Access Control
PDA
Data Confidentiality
C
R
A
Protect
Stylus
Wire
Authentication
keypad
Bluefire
A
Access
C
R
Mobile

Wireless

Firewall
Access
Plus
A
C
R
Entity
Tivoli
Private Key
Encryption

Origin
Public Key
Encryption
A
R


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Legend

Softgoal (non-functional)
NFR Contribution
Hardgoal (functional)
And Decomposition
COTS Component
C Component R Requirements
A Architecture
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Conclusions

• CARE approach
• Supports systematic matching, ranking, and
  selecting COTS components in the CARE Framework
  using the functional and non-functional
  requirements and the architecture of the
  components
• employs the NFR Framework to qualitatively
  evaluate the COTS components
• a component engineer, affiliated with the
  acquirer's organization, uses empirical studies
  to obtain (additional) component data
• COTS components are represented as an aggregate
  of functional and non-functional requirements and
  architecture - each with its own set of
  attributes

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Future work

• Future work includes
• investigating additional search techniques
• case based, rule based, neural nets, etc.
• defining a metamodel for CARE
• goals, agents, COTS components
• developing web-based tool support
• Project website is under construction at
  http//www.utdallas.edu/weiminma/public