Model-based Method to Utilize a Catalogue of Quality Requirements in Software Development

Complex software-based systems must comply with both functional and non-functional requirements (NFRs) to provide usefulness. This paper presents a structured catalogue of quality requirements and a model-based approach to collect NFRs from the catalogue in a given project context. The NFR catalogue is structured according to the quality criteria from the ISO 25000 series of standards and can be further extended. This catalogue can be applied in specific software development or modernization projects and in the preparation of tenders. This application to a specific project context is achieved by using the BPMN-NFR method presented in this paper. In this method, pattern recognition in system models is used to build a soft-goal model that serves as a filter mechanism for selecting relevant quality requirements from the catalogue. Through enrichment with context information concrete system related non-functional requirements are derived, which can be used for the system development. This model-based method was developed and applied in the context of the modernization of the budgetary procedures of Germany’s federal government.