Evaluating software specifications by comparison

  • Authors:

  • Cyrille Dongmo;John A. van der Poll

  • Affiliations:

  • University of South Africa;University of South Africa

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists Conference on Knowledge, Innovation and Leadership in a Diverse, Multidisciplinary Environment
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

It is a common practice in software development and other engineering domains to design more than one solution for a complex problem and consider only the most appropriate one. Similar practice is observed when procuring a new software product. The literature recommends this practice and intensively reveals a number of practical cases, yet is largely silent on how to make such a selection. In requirements engineering, an important issue is to provide a basis for judging and selecting one specification above others. This paper proposes through a case study, an approach to evaluate and compare two Object-Z specifications of the same set of requirements and hence, provides a means to select the most appropriate one. The approach recommends identifying properties expected from a satisfactory specification, uses existing validation techniques to evaluate proposed specifications and defines guidelines for comparison to facilitate the choice.