Conflict characterization and Analysis of Non Functional Requirements: An experimental approach

Prior studies reveal that conflicts among Non Functional Requirements (NFRs) are not always absolute. They can also be relative depending on the context of the system being developed. Given that existing techniques to manage the NFRs conflicts are mainly focused on cataloguing the interrelationships among various types of NFRs, hence a technique to manage the NFRs conflicts with respect to NFRs relative characteristic is needed. This paper presents a novel framework to manage the conflicts among NFRs with respect to NFRs relative characteristic. By applying an experimental approach, the quantitative evidence of NFRs conflicts will be obtained and modeled. NFRs metrics and measures will be used in the experiments as parameters to generate the quantitative evidence. This evidence can then allow developers to identify and reason about the NFRs conflicts. We also provide an example of how this framework could be applied.