A Fuzzy Logic-based Methodology for the Acquisition and Analysis of Imprecise Requirements

Two major challenges with requirement analysis in concurrent engineering are: (1) requirements from multiple members of a concurrent engineering team are often conflictingwith each other; and (2) requirements are often imprecise in nature. Existing formal methods for requirement engineering are very limited in addressing these issues. More specifically, they have not fully explored the use of artificial intelligence technique for achieving effective trade-offs among conflicting imprecise requirements. This paper presents a comprehensive methodology for specifying imprecise requirements and for characterizing complex relationships among them to facilitate trade-off analysis. Imprecise requirements are represented by the canonical form in test-score semantics in fuzzy logic. A formal approach and a practical method are developed to analyze the complex relationships between requirements. Conflicting requirements can be identified and represented using both qualitative terms and quantitative measures. Multipl...