Representing Requirement Relationships

Capturing structural relationships between requirements is essential for effective visualization. Existing techniques such as UML, SysML, and goaloriented requirement engineering present a relationship focused approach in visualization; however, a commonly shared understanding of requirement-based relationships has not yet emerged. Considerations in structural and visual representation of requirement relationships are discussed in the paper, drawing issues from commercial tools, UML, SysML requirements diagram and goal-oriented requirement engineering. Lessons learned from author's own experience of developing requirement engineering tool support with graph-based techniques are summarized. Suggestions for areas of investigation for practical and better use of requirement relationships via visualization are provided.