This website contains complementary data to the paper.
Context: The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of physical objects and system connected through mutual communication protocols. IoT systems have specific characteristics such as, self-configuration, dynamic changes, device and software heterogeneity. Goal: As IoT systems incorporate several components of the software, hardware, communication, and other features, building requirements documents to such systems become a challenge for Requirements Engineering (RE). Thus, this paper presents TEl-IoT, a template to aid developers during the requirements elicitation activities for IoT systems. Method: We conducted three evidence-based studies. We first performed a literature review aiming to identify artifacts that support requirements elicitation and specification for IoT systems. Second, based on the literature review, we proposed the initial version of the TEl-IoT. Finally, we performed two empirical studies to assess the TEl-IoT: (i) feasibility study with industry regarding the first version of TEl-IoT, and (ii) an observational study to understand how students apply the TEl-IoT in an IoT project. Results: Our results showed that TEl-IoT is viable, and its use reduces the time spent on requirements elicitation, in comparison with the ad-hoc way. In addition, our qualitative results also suggested that the use of TEl-IoT facilitates the requirements elicitation for IoT systems. Conclusion: We expect our template to guide requirements elicitation for IoT systems in practice. Our results showed that TEl-IoT can support developers and contribute to the body of knowledge about RE applicable in the IoT context.
The objective is to define a structured template that helps the software engineer in requirements elicitation. Ability to provide the necessary information for the development of the software project.
The template was built to be applied in requirements elicitation, combining the elicitation strategies found in the literature for IoT and the foundations of ES. The information to fill in the template can be identified and collected through interviews, brainstorming and other techniques that may be necessary to carry out the project.
To achieve the goal, the TEl-IoT must follow a sequence of activities, to make the information explicit and obtain the maximum information related to the system, in a way that to provide the most correct and complete understanding of what is required for that system of software. They are: i) organization of the context; ii) definition of the system scope; iii) definition stakeholder and user environment; iv) definition of system requirements; and v) restrictions of the system. Each activity has an objective and results that fulfill the purpose of the ER process for IoT systems.
Click here (TEl-IoT template) to see the complete description of the TEl-IoT template
| # | Artifact | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Artifacts Related to the Literature Review | ||
| 1 | Literature review protocol | This file contains the complete description of the literature review protocol, including the results. |
| Artifacts Related to the Feasibility Study (Study 1) | ||
| 1 | Consent form (Study 1) | This file contains the consent form. |
| 2 | Participant characterization form (Study 1) | This file contains the participant characterization form. |
| 3 | Activity experiment form (Study 1) | This file contains the activity experiment form. We omitted this form due to intellectual-property constraints. |
| 4 | Follow-up form (Study 1) | This file contains the follow-up form. |
| Artifacts Related to the Observational Study (Study 2) | ||
| 1 | Consent form (Study 2) | This file contains the consent form. |
| 2 | Participant characterization form (Study 2) | This file contains the participant characterization form. |
| 3 | List of experiment activity (Study 2) | This file contains the list of experiment activity. |
| 4 | Follow-up form (Study 2) | This file contains the follow-up form. |
Any questions and/or suggestions should be sent to the paper authors as follows.
| # | Name | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sabrina R. Souza | sabrina.rocha@icomp.ufam.edu.br |
| 2 | Bruno P. Souza | bpsouza@cos.ufrj.br |
| 3 | Anderson Uchôa | andersonuchoa@ufc.br |
| 4 | Daniella de O. Costa | daniellacosta@ufam.edu.br |