QoE probe: A Requirement-monitoring Tool

Runtime requirement monitoring is used for verification and validation of implemented requirements. To monitor the requirements in runtime; we propose a “QoE probe” tool, a mobile application integrated through an API, to collect usage logs as well as users’ Quality of Experience (QoE) in the form of user feedback. The analysis of the collected data guides requirement monitoring of functional and non-functional requirements as well as capturing new requirements. 1 Motivation and Objective Runtime requirement monitoring helps requirement engineers to verify the alignment of a software system with specified requirements [1] and to validate the users’ acceptance of the system’s requirements [2]. The monitoring facilitates understanding of requirements violation, i.e. the system fails to meet the specified requirements, discovering and prioritizing user needs through the running version of software system [3], and also facilitates a fast reaction for evolving the system and the corresponding requirements [4]. Understanding the requirement violation and real user needs at runtime requires an automated monitoring tool. Available automated monitoring tools do not collect and align runtime logs and user feedback corresponding to different sets of requirements. Collecting just runtime logs gives insight into the implemented requirements, but does not reflect user satisfaction with the requirements or the system. User feedback alone cannot be traced back technical specifications of the system. The above discussion implies the importance of an automated user feedback collection tool that aligns user perception of the implemented requirements with the technical characteristics of the system. We propose “QoE Probe” tool that captures users’ Quality of Experience (QoE) [5] by periodically requesting for user feedback, while collecting and aligning continuously with usage logs. The aligning feature and the provided API for flexible investigating of requirements make the QoE probe different than similar monitoring tools [6]. By analyzing the aligned usage logs and user feedback, “QoE probe” assists to find out whether users are satisfied with the implemented functional requirements, to discover new user requirements from the analysis of user feedback, and to find out the proper level of non-functional requirements based on the users’ QoE [7].