Support for traceability management of software artefacts using natural language processing

A Arunthavanathan; S Shanmugathasan; S Ratnavel; V Thiyagarajah; I Perera; D Meedeniya; Dharini Balasubramaniam

doi:10.1109/MERCon.2016.7480109

Support for traceability management of software artefacts using natural language processing

A Arunthavanathan, S Shanmugathasan, S Ratnavel, V Thiyagarajah, I Perera, D Meedeniya, Dharini Balasubramaniam

School of Computer Science

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract

One of the major problems in software development process is managing software artefacts. While software evolves, inconsistencies between the artefacts do evolve as well. To resolve the inconsistencies in change management, a tool named “Software Artefacts Traceability Analyzer (SAT-Analyzer)” was introduced as the previous work of this research. Changes in software artefacts in requirement specification, Unified Modelling Language (UML) diagrams and source codes can be tracked with the help of Natural Language Processing (NLP) by creating a structured format of those documents. Therefore, in this research we aim at adding an NLP support as an extension to SAT-Analyzer. Enhancing the traceability links created in the SAT-analyzer tool is another focus due to artefact inconsistencies. This paper includes the research methodology and relevant research carried out in applying NLP for improved traceability management. Tool evaluation with multiple scenarios resulted in average Precision 72.22%, Recall 88.89% and F1 measure of 78.89% suggesting high accuracy for the domain.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	2nd International Moratuwa Engineering Research Conference, MERCon 2016; Civil Engineering Complex, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda, Moratuwa; Sri Lanka; 5 April 2016 through 6 April 2016
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages	18-23
ISBN (Print)	9781509006458
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/MERCon.2016.7480109
Publication status	Published - 26 May 2016
Event	Moratuwa Engineering Research Conference (MERCon), 2016 - University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka Duration: 5 Apr 2016 → 6 Apr 2016 Conference number: 2 http://mercon.mrt.ac.lk/

Conference

Conference	Moratuwa Engineering Research Conference (MERCon), 2016
Abbreviated title	MERCon
Country/Territory	Sri Lanka
City	Moratuwa
Period	5/04/16 → 6/04/16
Internet address	http://mercon.mrt.ac.lk/

Keywords

Natural language processing
Taxonomy
Traceability links
Traceability visualization

Access to Document

10.1109/MERCon.2016.7480109

Cite this

Arunthavanathan, A., Shanmugathasan, S., Ratnavel, S., Thiyagarajah, V., Perera, I., Meedeniya, D., & Balasubramaniam, D. (2016). Support for traceability management of software artefacts using natural language processing. In 2nd International Moratuwa Engineering Research Conference, MERCon 2016; Civil Engineering Complex, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda, Moratuwa; Sri Lanka; 5 April 2016 through 6 April 2016 (pp. 18-23). Article 7480109 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. https://doi.org/10.1109/MERCon.2016.7480109

Arunthavanathan, A ; Shanmugathasan, S ; Ratnavel, S et al. / Support for traceability management of software artefacts using natural language processing. 2nd International Moratuwa Engineering Research Conference, MERCon 2016; Civil Engineering Complex, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda, Moratuwa; Sri Lanka; 5 April 2016 through 6 April 2016. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2016. pp. 18-23

@inproceedings{08fe0757365840068fb210758b94cc6b,

title = "Support for traceability management of software artefacts using natural language processing",

abstract = "One of the major problems in software development process is managing software artefacts. While software evolves, inconsistencies between the artefacts do evolve as well. To resolve the inconsistencies in change management, a tool named “Software Artefacts Traceability Analyzer (SAT-Analyzer)” was introduced as the previous work of this research. Changes in software artefacts in requirement specification, Unified Modelling Language (UML) diagrams and source codes can be tracked with the help of Natural Language Processing (NLP) by creating a structured format of those documents. Therefore, in this research we aim at adding an NLP support as an extension to SAT-Analyzer. Enhancing the traceability links created in the SAT-analyzer tool is another focus due to artefact inconsistencies. This paper includes the research methodology and relevant research carried out in applying NLP for improved traceability management. Tool evaluation with multiple scenarios resulted in average Precision 72.22%, Recall 88.89% and F1 measure of 78.89% suggesting high accuracy for the domain.",

keywords = "Natural language processing, Taxonomy, Traceability links, Traceability visualization",

author = "A Arunthavanathan and S Shanmugathasan and S Ratnavel and V Thiyagarajah and I Perera and D Meedeniya and Dharini Balasubramaniam",

year = "2016",

month = may,

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doi = "10.1109/MERCon.2016.7480109",

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publisher = "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.",

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Arunthavanathan, A, Shanmugathasan, S, Ratnavel, S, Thiyagarajah, V, Perera, I, Meedeniya, D & Balasubramaniam, D 2016, Support for traceability management of software artefacts using natural language processing. in 2nd International Moratuwa Engineering Research Conference, MERCon 2016; Civil Engineering Complex, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda, Moratuwa; Sri Lanka; 5 April 2016 through 6 April 2016., 7480109, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., pp. 18-23, Moratuwa Engineering Research Conference (MERCon), 2016, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 5/04/16. https://doi.org/10.1109/MERCon.2016.7480109

Support for traceability management of software artefacts using natural language processing. / Arunthavanathan, A; Shanmugathasan, S; Ratnavel, S et al.
2nd International Moratuwa Engineering Research Conference, MERCon 2016; Civil Engineering Complex, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda, Moratuwa; Sri Lanka; 5 April 2016 through 6 April 2016. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2016. p. 18-23 7480109.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

TY - GEN

T1 - Support for traceability management of software artefacts using natural language processing

AU - Arunthavanathan, A

AU - Shanmugathasan, S

AU - Ratnavel, S

AU - Thiyagarajah, V

AU - Perera, I

AU - Meedeniya, D

AU - Balasubramaniam, Dharini

N1 - Conference code: 2

PY - 2016/5/26

Y1 - 2016/5/26

N2 - One of the major problems in software development process is managing software artefacts. While software evolves, inconsistencies between the artefacts do evolve as well. To resolve the inconsistencies in change management, a tool named “Software Artefacts Traceability Analyzer (SAT-Analyzer)” was introduced as the previous work of this research. Changes in software artefacts in requirement specification, Unified Modelling Language (UML) diagrams and source codes can be tracked with the help of Natural Language Processing (NLP) by creating a structured format of those documents. Therefore, in this research we aim at adding an NLP support as an extension to SAT-Analyzer. Enhancing the traceability links created in the SAT-analyzer tool is another focus due to artefact inconsistencies. This paper includes the research methodology and relevant research carried out in applying NLP for improved traceability management. Tool evaluation with multiple scenarios resulted in average Precision 72.22%, Recall 88.89% and F1 measure of 78.89% suggesting high accuracy for the domain.

AB - One of the major problems in software development process is managing software artefacts. While software evolves, inconsistencies between the artefacts do evolve as well. To resolve the inconsistencies in change management, a tool named “Software Artefacts Traceability Analyzer (SAT-Analyzer)” was introduced as the previous work of this research. Changes in software artefacts in requirement specification, Unified Modelling Language (UML) diagrams and source codes can be tracked with the help of Natural Language Processing (NLP) by creating a structured format of those documents. Therefore, in this research we aim at adding an NLP support as an extension to SAT-Analyzer. Enhancing the traceability links created in the SAT-analyzer tool is another focus due to artefact inconsistencies. This paper includes the research methodology and relevant research carried out in applying NLP for improved traceability management. Tool evaluation with multiple scenarios resulted in average Precision 72.22%, Recall 88.89% and F1 measure of 78.89% suggesting high accuracy for the domain.

KW - Natural language processing

KW - Taxonomy

KW - Traceability links

KW - Traceability visualization

U2 - 10.1109/MERCon.2016.7480109

DO - 10.1109/MERCon.2016.7480109

M3 - Conference contribution

SN - 9781509006458

SP - 18

EP - 23

BT - 2nd International Moratuwa Engineering Research Conference, MERCon 2016; Civil Engineering Complex, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda, Moratuwa; Sri Lanka; 5 April 2016 through 6 April 2016

PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.

T2 - Moratuwa Engineering Research Conference (MERCon), 2016

Y2 - 5 April 2016 through 6 April 2016

ER -

Arunthavanathan A, Shanmugathasan S, Ratnavel S, Thiyagarajah V, Perera I, Meedeniya D et al. Support for traceability management of software artefacts using natural language processing. In 2nd International Moratuwa Engineering Research Conference, MERCon 2016; Civil Engineering Complex, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda, Moratuwa; Sri Lanka; 5 April 2016 through 6 April 2016. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. 2016. p. 18-23. 7480109 doi: 10.1109/MERCon.2016.7480109

Support for traceability management of software artefacts using natural language processing

Abstract

Conference

Keywords

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