NICE: Non-Functional Requirements Identification, Classification, and Explanation Using Small Language Models
Award Winner
This program is tentative and subject to change.
Accurate identification and classification of Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs) is essential for informed architectural decision-making and maintaining software quality. Numerous language model-based techniques have been proposed for NFR identification and classification. However, understanding the reasoning behind the classification outputs of these techniques remains challenging. Rationales for the classification outputs of language models enhance comprehension, aid in debugging the models, and build confidence in the classification outputs. In this paper, we present NICE, a tool for NFR Identification, Classification, and Explanation. Using an industrial requirements dataset, we generated explanations in natural language using the GPT-4o large language model (LLM). We then fine-tuned small language models (SLMs), including T5, Llama 3.1, and Phi 3, with these LLM-generated explanations to identify and classify NFRs and to explain their classification outputs. We evaluated NICE using standard evaluation metrics such as F1-score and human evaluation to assess the quality of the generated explanations. Among the models tested, T5 produced explanations of quality comparable to Llama 3.1 and Phi 3 but achieved the highest average F1-score of 0.90 in multi-label NFR classification on the industrial requirements dataset. Furthermore, to evaluate the effectiveness of NICE, a survey was conducted with 20 requirements analysts and software developers. NICE is currently deployed as a part of the Knowledge-assisted Requirements Evolution (K-RE) framework developed by a large IT vendor organization.
This program is tentative and subject to change.
Thu 1 MayDisplayed time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) change
11:00 - 12:30 | AI for RequirementsResearch Track / SE In Practice (SEIP) / Journal-first Papers / New Ideas and Emerging Results (NIER) at 213 | ||
11:00 15mTalk | From Bugs to Benefits: Improving User Stories by Leveraging Crowd Knowledge with CrUISE-AC Research Track | ||
11:15 15mTalk | LiSSA: Toward Generic Traceability Link Recovery through Retrieval-Augmented Generation Research Track Dominik Fuchß Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Tobias Hey Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Jan Keim Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Haoyu Liu Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Niklas Ewald Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Tobias Thirolf Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Anne Koziolek Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Pre-print | ||
11:30 15mTalk | Replication in Requirements Engineering: the NLP for RE Case Journal-first Papers Sallam Abualhaija University of Luxembourg, Fatma Başak Aydemir Utrecht University, Fabiano Dalpiaz Utrecht University, Davide Dell'Anna Utrecht University, Alessio Ferrari CNR-ISTI, Xavier Franch Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Davide Fucci Blekinge Institute of Technology | ||
11:45 15mTalk | On the Impact of Requirements Smells in Prompts: The Case of Automated Traceability New Ideas and Emerging Results (NIER) Andreas Vogelsang University of Cologne, Alexander Korn University of Cologne, Giovanna Broccia ISTI-CNR, FMT Lab, Alessio Ferrari Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) and University College Dublin (UCD), Jannik Fischbach Netlight Consulting GmbH and fortiss GmbH, Chetan Arora Monash University | ||
12:00 15mTalk | NICE: Non-Functional Requirements Identification, Classification, and Explanation Using Small Language ModelsAward Winner SE In Practice (SEIP) |