Wed 6 Sep 2023 10:45 - 11:15 at f142 - Formal Requirements Chair(s): Paola Spoletini

Variability constraints are an integral part of the requirements for a configurable system. The constraints specified in the requirements on the legal combinations of options define the space of potential valid configurations for the system-to-be. This paper reports on our experience with the variability-related requirements constraints of a flight software framework used by multiple space missions. A challenge that we saw for practitioners using the current framework, now open-sourced, is that the specifications of its variability-related requirements and constraints are dispersed across several documents, rather than being centralized in the software requirements specification. Such dispersion can contribute to misunderstandings of the side-effects of design choices, increased effort for developers, and bugs during operations. Based on our experience, we propose a new software variability model, similar to a product-line feature model, in the flight software framework. We describe the structured technique by which our model is developed, demonstrate its use, and evaluate it on a key service module of the flight software. Results show that our lightweight modeling technique helped find missing and inconsistent variability-related requirements and constraints. More generally, we suggest that a variability modeling technique such as this can be an efficient way for developers to centralize the specification and improve the analysis of dispersed variability-related requirements and constraints in other configurable systems.

Wed 6 Sep

Displayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change

10:45 - 12:15
Formal RequirementsJournal-First / Industrial Innovation Papers / RE@Next! Papers at f142
Chair(s): Paola Spoletini Kennesaw State University
10:45
30m
Paper
Requirements Analysis of Variability Constraints in a Configurable Flight Software System
Industrial Innovation Papers
A: Chin Khor Iowa State University, A: Robyn Lutz Iowa State University
Pre-print
11:15
30m
Talk
The Role of Formalism in System Requirements
Journal-First
A: Jean-Michel Bruel IRIT (CNRS and Univ. of Toulouse)
Link to publication DOI
11:45
30m
Research paper
Understanding Fairness Requirements for ML-based Software
RE@Next! Papers
A: Luciano Baresi Politecnico di Milano, A: Chiara Criscuolo Politecnico di Milano, A: Carlo Ghezzi Politecnico di Milano
File Attached