Abstract
In the field of software engineering, multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods have been applied during software requirements prioritization (SRP) process. Among various MCDM methods, analytic hierarchy process is a desired technique to compute the ranking values of the software requirements (SRs). These ranking values are employed to choose the SRs that would be executed during different releases of the software. During SRP, stakeholders specify their preferences on SRs in a matrix, which is known as pairwise comparison matrix (PCM). This matrix is used to compute the ranking values of the SRs. The ranking values of the SRs would be reliable only when the PCMs are consistent. Based on our literature review, we identify that during SRP process less attention is given to statistical based approaches to examine the consistency of PCM. Therefore, to address this issue we proposed a method for SRP which is pliable and genuine because it sets a relevant significance level according to the size of the PCMs. Finally, the proposed method is discussed by considering the SRs of an institute examination system.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
First author is on study leave from Jamia Millia Islamia (A Central University), New Delhi-110025, India. Currently, he is working as Postdoc Research Fellow at Department of Computer Science and Automation, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, India.
References
Achimugu P, Selamat A, Ibrahim R (2014) A web-based multi-criteria decision making tool for software requirements prioritization. In: Hwang D, Jung JJ, Nguyen NT (eds) Computational collective intelligence. Technologies and applications. ICCCI 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8733. Springer, Cham, pp 444–453. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11289-3_45
Aguaron J, Moreno-Jimenez JM (2003) The geometric consistency index: appropriate thresholds. Eur J Oper Res 147(1):137–145. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0377-2217(02)00255-2
Alonso JA, Lamata MT (2004) Estimation of the random index in the analytic hierarchy process. In: proceedings of Information processing and Management of Uncertainty in Knowledge-Based Systems, Perugia, Vol. 1, pp. 317–322.
Alonso JA, Lamata MT (2006) Consistency in the analytic hierarchy process: a new approach. Int J Uncert Fuzz Knowl Based Syst 14(4):445–459. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218488506004114
Ballejos LC, Montagna JM (2008) Method for stakeholder identification in inter-organizational environments. Require Eng 13(4):281–297. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00766-008-0069-1
Banae CC, Vansnick J (2008) A critical analysis of the eigenvalue method used to derive priorities in AHP. Eur J Oper Res 187(3):1422–1428. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2006.09.022
Busetta P, Kifetew FM, Munante D, Perini A, Siena A, and Susi A (2017). Tool supported collaborative requirements prioritization. In: Proceedings of the 41st annual computer software and application conference, pp 180–189. https://doi.org/10.1109/COMPSAC.2017.243
Carpertz LF, Ahmed F (2010) Making sense of software development and personality types. IT Profess 12(1):6–13. https://doi.org/10.1109/MITP.2010.33
Crawford G, Williams CA (1985) Note on the analysis of subjective judgements matrices. J Math Psychol 29(4):387–405. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-2496(85)90002-1
Devore TL (2000) Probability and statistics. California. Thomson Learning, London
Dieste O, Juristo N (2011) Systematic review and aggregation of empirical studies on elicitation techniques. IEEE Trans Eng Manage 37(2):283–304. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2010.33
Ergu D, Kou G, Peng Y, Shi Y (2011) A simple method to improve the consistency ratio of the pairwise comparison matrix in ANP. Eur J Oper Res 213(1):246–259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2011.03.014
Fellir F, Nafil K, Touahni R (2014) System requirements prioritization based on AHP. In: Proceedings of 3rd IEEE international colloquium in information sciences and technology, pp 163–167. https://doi.org/10.1109/CIST.2014.7016612
Freeman E (2010) Strategic management: a stakeholder approach: Cambridge University Press.
Garg N, Sadiq M, Agarwal P (2017) GOASREP: goal oriented approach for software requirements elicitation and prioritization using analytic hierarchy process. In: Satapathy S, Bhateja V, Udgata S, Pattnaik P (eds) Proceedings of the 5th international conference on frontiers in intelligent computing: theory and applications. Advances in intelligent systems and computing, vol 516. Springer, Singapore, pp 281–287. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3156-4_28
Hujainah F, Bakar RBA, Abdulgabber MA, Zamli KZ (2019) Software requirements prioritization:a systematic literature review on significance, stakeholders, techniques and challenges. IEEE Access 6:71497–71523. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2881755
Ishizaka A, Lusti M (2004) An expert module to improve the consistency of AHP matrices. Int Trans Oper Res 11(1):97–105. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-3995.2004.00443.x
Jong PD (1984) A statistical approach to Saaty’s scaling method for priorities. J Math Psychol 28:467–478. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-2496(84)90013-0
Karapetrovic S, Rosenbloom E (1999) A quality control approach to consistency paradoxes in AHP. Eur J Oper Res 119(3):704–718. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0377-2217(98)00334-8
Karlsson J, Wohlin C, Regnell B (1998) An evaluation of methods for prioritizing software requirements. Inf Softw Technol 39(14–15):939–947. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0950-5849(97)00053-0
Khan MA, Parveen A, Sadiq M (2014) A method for the selection of software development life cycle models using analytic hierarchy process. In: IEEE international conference on issues and challenges in intelligent computing techniques, pp 534–540. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICICICT.2014.6781338
Kwiesielewicz M, Van UE (2004) Inconsistent and contradictory judgements in pairwise in AHP. Comput Oper Res 119:704–719. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0305-0548(03)00022-4
Lapouchnian A (2005) Goal oriented requirements engineering: an overview of the current research. University of Toronto, Canada, Department of Computer Science
Liaskos S, Jalman R, and Aranda J (2012) On eliciting contribution measures in goal models. International requirements engineering conference, pp 221–230. https://doi.org/10.1109/RE.2012.6345808
Lim SL, Finkelstein A (2012) StakeRare: Using social network and collaborative filtering for large scale requirements elicitation. IEEE Trans Softw Eng 38(3):707–735. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2011.36
Lin C, Kou G, Ergu D (2013) An improved statistical approach for consistency test in AHP. Ann Oper Res 211:289–299. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-013-1413-5
Misaghian N, Motameni H (2018) An approach for requirements prioritization based on tensor decomposition. Require Eng 23:169–188. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00766-016-0262-6
Mohammad CW, Shahid M, Hussain SZ (2018) Fuzzy attributed goal oriented software requirements analysis with multiple stakeholders. Int J Inf Technol. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41870-017-0073-0
Pacheco C, Garcia I (2012) A systematic literature review of stakeholder identification methods in requirements elicitation. J Syst Softw 85(9):2171–2181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2012.04.075
Richard A, Johnson DW (1998) Applied multivariate statistical analysis. Prentice Hall, New York
Runeson P, Host M (2009) Guidelines for conducting and reporting case study research in software engineering. Empir Softw Eng 14:131–164
Saaty TL (1977) A scaling method for priorities in hierarchical structures. J Math Psychol 15(3):234–281. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-2496(77)90033-5
Saaty TL (1980) The analytic hierarchy process. McGraw-Hill, New York
Sadiq M (2017) A fuzzy-set based approach for the prioritization of stakeholders on the basis of the importance of software requirements. IETE J Res 63(5):616–629. https://doi.org/10.1080/03772063.2017.1313140
Sadiq M, Afrin A (2017) Extending AHP-GORE-PSR by generating different patterns of pairwise comparison matrix. In: International conference on information, communication and computing technology
Sadiq M, Firoze F (2014) A method for the selection of software testing automation framework using analytic hierarchy process. Int J Comput Appl 102(1):26–30
Sadiq M, Jain SK (2012) An insight into requirements engineering processes. In: Das VV, Stephen J (eds) Advances in communication, network, and computing. CNC 2012. Lecture notes of the institute for computer sciences, social informatics and telecommunications engineering, vol 108. Springer, Berlin, pp 313–318. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35615-5_48
Sadiq M, Jain SK (2014) Applying fuzzy preference relation for requirements prioritization in goal oriented requirements elicitation process. Int J Syst Assur Eng Manag 5(4):711–723. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13198-014-0236-3
Sadiq M, Jain SK (2015) A fuzzy based approach for the selection of goals in goal oriented requirements elicitation process. Int J Syst Assur Eng Manag 6(2):157–164. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13198-014-0260-3
Sadiq M, Nazneen S (2019) Elicitation of software testing requirements from the selected set of software’s functional requirements in GOREP. Int J Comput Syst Eng Indersci 5(3):152–160. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJCSYSE.2019.100743
Sadiq M, Sultana S (2015) A method for the selection of software testing techniques using analytic hierarchy process. In: Jain L, Behera H, Mandal J, Mohapatra D (eds) Computational intelligence in data mining, vol 1. Smart innovation, systems and technologies, vol 31. Springer, New Delhi, pp 213–220. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2205-7_20
Sadiq M, Ghafir S, Shahid M (2009) An approach for eliciting software requirements and its prioritization using analytic hierarchy process. IEEE international conference on advances in recent technologies in communication and computing, pp 790–795. https://doi.org/10.1109/ARTCom.2009.58
Sadiq M, Ahmad J, Asim M, Qureshi A, and Suman R (2010) More on elicitation of software requirements and prioritization using AHP. In: IEEE international conference on data storage and data engineering, pp 230–234. https://doi.org/10.1109/DSDE.2010.23
Sadiq M, Hassan T, Nazneen S (2017) AHP_GORE_PSR:applying analytic hierarchy process in goal oriented requirements elicitation method for the prioritization of software requirements. In: 3rd IEEE international conference on computational intelligence and communication technology, pp 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1109/CIACT.2017.7977366
Sadiq M, Khan S, Mohammad CW (2018) Software requirements selection using consistent pairwise comparison matrices of AHP. Int J Comput Sci Eng 6(9):168–175
Sayed B, Shamsi Z, Sadiq M (2017) A method for the selection of agile methods using AHP. In: Satapathy S, Bhateja V, Udgata S, Pattnaik P (eds) Proceedings of the 5th international conference on frontiers in intelligent computing: theory and applications. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 516. Springer, Singapore, pp 297–303. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3156-4_30
Stein WE, Mizzi PZ (2007) The harmonic consistency index for the analytic hierarchy process. Eur J Oper Res 177:488–497. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2005.10.057
Susniene D, Purvinis O (2015) Empirical insights on understanding stakeholder influence. J Bus Econ Manag 16(4):845–860. https://doi.org/10.3846/16111699.2013.785974
Vargas LG (1982) Reciprocal matrices with random coefficients. Math Model 3(1):69–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/0270-0255(82)90013-6
Vargas LG (2008) The consistency index in reciprocal matrices: comparison of deterministic and statistical approaches. Eur J Oper Res 191(2):454–463. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2007.06.054
Wang Y, Chin KS, Luo Y (2009) Aggregation of direct and indirect judgements in pairwise comparison matrices with a reexamination of the criticism by Banae Costa and Vansnick. Inf Sci 179:329–337. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2008.10.001
Acknowledgments
This work has been carried out in collaboration with Software Engineering Research Group, BSS Research Lab, Bakewarr Software Solutions, New Delhi-110025, India. Email: serg.bsoft@gmail.com
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sadiq, M., Sadim, M. & Parveen, A. Applying statistical approach to check the consistency of pairwise comparison matrices during software requirements prioritization process. Int J Syst Assur Eng Manag 12, 451–460 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13198-021-01090-2
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13198-021-01090-2