Representation: Formal Development and Computational Recognition of Localized Requirement Change Types

Requirement change propagation, the process in which a change to one requirement results in additional requirement changes when otherwise this change would not have been needed, occurs frequently and must be managed. Multiple approaches exist, and have been readily published, for predicting requirement change propagation, analyzing change how a change to one requirement may propagate forward to other, related requirements (global level). However, the type of change encountered within a single requirement (localized level) has not been thoroughly studied and could be used to assist in the global analysis of requirement change propagation. This paper seeks to begin to fill this gap by identifying types of change requirements may encounter. By surveying research performed in the realm of requirement change, a taxonomy of change types is developed. To computationally analyze the changes, the localized requirement changes are represented through syntactical elements to identify which requirements’ parts of speech is affected. Using part of speech language rules, the identification of requirement change type is automatically identified. Further, the automatic identification of requirement change type is used to assist in predicting change propagation, a process currently automated. This bridges the gap between localized and global requirement change in an automated, systematic manner.