Gerenciamento de requisitos no ambiente Cocar
Abstract
The objective of this work was to implement an initial version of a development support
environment, based on the Use Case Model, named COCAR. The conception and the features of
this environment are the result of several master papers. In the scope of this work, the main
subject under study has been requirement management, although concerning its implementation,
functionalities related to other previous works have also been contemplated. This environment
prop up a few software development tasks, aiming at leveling up qualitity throughout the process.
It is well know that one of the principal characteristics related to software product quality is that
the product should meet the user requirements. In requirement engineering, the comunication
between the user and the developer is stated in the Requirement Document and based on it, the
requeriment can be modelled, for instance, by means of the Use Case Model. Despite the efforts
invested in gathering requirements with the user, it is know that they are very likely to be
ammended during the development process.
A fundamental factor for the maintainance of the overall quality is that such modifications to the
requirements occur in a monitored and foreseeable way. The ability to describe and follow a
requirement life-cycle within the software development process is denominated requirement
traceability. As the requirement document represents what binds the user and the developers, if
traceability is obtained from that point onwards, the quality of the development process tend to
increase and this permits monitoring since its earliest phases. This paper contribution to the
implementation of the environment COCAR, includes features such as: registering the requirement
of a system, generating of a Use Case Model, requirement management (mainly what concerns
traceability between the Requirement Document and the Use Case Model), providing traceability
metrics found in academic literature and the possibility of determining the relationship between
the requirements. Based on the data provided by the tool, it is easy to perceive that they are
highly relevant to any system development planning or following up, which can be an important
pragmatic contribution to the improvement of software development and software products.