A Non-functional Requirements Traceability Management Method Based on Architectural Patterns

Unlike the functional requirements that support a certain degree of locality in the system, non-functional requirements, being related to the system quality, apply to the overall qualities of the system. In most cases, non-functional requirements provide solutions in pattern and are applied to the system in the design phase. If the traceability between the analysis model elements, design model elements and the elements involved in the architectural pattern is not maintained in the application process, it may be very costly to reflect the changes of the nonfunctional requirements in the system. This study proposes the mechanism in which the traceability between analysis model, design model and pattern elements is set in real time while applying the architecture pattern simultaneously to minimize the costly change of non-functional requirements. NFR Tracer, a tool that supports the automation of the above mentioned process, will also be introduced. NFR Tracer proposes the quantitative evaluation results on correctness and completeness automatically set on trace link, showing performance improvement.