Modelling assumptions and requirements in the context of project risk

Many researchers have emphasized the importance of documenting assumptions (As) underlying software requirements (Rs). However, As and Rs can change with time for reasons such as: (i) an A or R was elicited incorrectly and subsequently needs to be changed; (ii) operational domain changes induce changes in the A and R sets; and (iii) the change in validity of an A, or desirability of an R, respectively, causes the validity of another A or desirability of an R to change. In Section 2, we describe our model and how it works. To put such a model into practice, we need to consider at least two scenarios. One is intra-release cycle-time, where invalidity risk is predicted at the start of the project for times between the inception and completion of the project. This would give us intra-release risk trends. The second scenario is prediction over multiple releases. This would give us a risk trend over a longer period of time. The full paper describes an algorithm to cover both of these scenarios and gives an example (from a banking application) of how the model could apply in practice. Here, we consider only the first scenario due to limitation of space.