A utilização de histórias em quadrinhos na especificação de requisitos de software

Abstract

Some of the greatest challenges for Software requirements elicitation are related with the identification of what is needed to be developed and with the understanding of the organization business rules. Within this context, this work aims to propose the use of comics in the methodology of requirements specification. A method of scenario simulation has been proposed through the use of comics, in which a language needs to be defined for requirements specification and, in the sequence, it is possible to document requirements using the defined language. Two pilot experiments were applied to Systems Analysts, Requirements Engineers and Developers of two companies, with the purpose of making them to develop a comic book to map a business process within their work environment. These professionals answered a questionnaire, analyzing the developed comics. After analyzing these two experiments, it was decided to establish a Guide for Comics to help people create stories. In a third experiment the author specified requirements of some software through a HQ. The HQ was created according to the guideline for creation of HQs and based on the Grammar established for the language of the HQs. This experiment was applied to 77 participants, in order to verify the understanding of a HQ. A final experiment was applied with senior students of the Computer Science course, in order to get them to create a comic book by specifying software requirements, this HQ should be created based on the Grammar for Comics and according to the Guide. The results of all these experiments were evaluated in a positive way, proving that the use of comics facilitates the identification of details in the processes of specification of requirements.