Robustness analysis: A bridging technique from system requirements to design.

Abstract

Robustness analysis, a technique proposed by Jacobson, can be used in a use-case-driven process to help close this gap between requirements and design by examining in depth the requirements found in the narrative text of each use case and structuring it into a robustness diagram. In this thesis, we present a step by step procedure for performing robustness analysis. In particular, we describe how to construct and use robustness diagrams to discover analysis and design errors early in the process, and to verify the correctness of the use case text. Moreover, we propose a new metric, robustness analysis points , to estimate project size and effort and we compare our results to function points and use case points in three case studies. Finally, we assess and evaluate the RA technique and conclude by giving recommendations for future work.