Title: A new multi-criteria decision process to prioritise requirements

Authors: Mohamed Amroune; Nacereddine Zarour; Pierre-Jean Charrel

Addresses: Computer Sciences Department, University of Constantine 2, Constantine, Algeria ' Computer Sciences Department, University of Constantine 2, Constantine, Algeria ' Computer Sciences Department, University of Toulouse 2, Toulouse, France

Abstract: Most software projects have more candidate requirements than can be realised within the time and cost constraints. This paper presents a novel multi-criteria decision analysis process to prioritise requirements. The novelty of the presented idea is three-fold. Firstly, to prioritise requirements, it distinguishes two categories of requirements according to their level of abstraction: low-level requirements and high-level requirements. Then, it relates business goals to the requirements of low-level which contribute to their fulfilment. This will improve the completeness and traceability of requirements. Secondly, requirements prioritisation is based on their degree of contribution to the identified business goals and their importance. So, business goals become the evaluation criteria. Finally, this process takes into account relationships and dependencies that may exist between business goals. At this end, we employ analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method to give weights to business goals and Choquet integral to calculate a global score, i.e. priority, for requirements.

Keywords: requirements prioritisation; decision analysis; fuzzy measure; Choquet integral; AHP.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICT.2018.090425

International Journal of Information and Communication Technology, 2018 Vol.13 No.1, pp.6 - 19

Received: 15 Jan 2015
Accepted: 22 May 2015
Published online: 19 Mar 2018 *

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