Hermeneutical Theodolite of Requirements: Evaluating and Revealing the Quality Grades of Software Requirements and of Domain of Application

摘要

Throughout the development of software, during Requirements Engineering activities, software requirements dynamically and constantly evolve and mature from an “identified” stage to an “approved” stage. This evolution takes place individually for each requirement, in a very particular way, because it depends on the level of understanding that the requirements engineer reaches in relation to it. How, then, to monitor the evolution of each software requirement? How to know the quality of each software requirement? How to measure the level of understanding and difficulty that the requirements engineer has in relation to each software requirement? This paper aims to present a proposal to answer these questions through the use of an instrument developed specifically to assess and reveal the quality grades of each software requirement and also to assess and reveal that the levels of understanding and of difficulty of the requirements engineer is in relation to each software requirement. This instrument was called the Hermeneutical Theodolite of Requirements, which also can be applied to evaluate that the levels of understanding and of difficulty of the requirements engineer is in relation to the domain of application, essential input artifact and primordial to the specification of the requirements of software.