Claims:We Claim:
1. A method for validating software development requirements, the method comprising:
accessing, via a processor, a software development requirement;
extracting, via the processor, a plurality of tokens from the software development requirement;
tagging, via the processor, each of the plurality of tokens to a corresponding part of speech;
deriving, via the processor, a pattern based on the plurality of tokens and the plurality of corresponding parts of speech;
determining, via the processor, at least one of a context and a business domain of the software development requirement;
identifying, via the processor, pre-defined rules for the plurality of tokens and pre-defined patterns for the pattern from an intelligence repository based on at least one of the context and the business domain;
in response to a positive identification, validating, via the processor, the software development requirement by analyzing the plurality of tokens against the pre-defined rules and by analyzing the pattern against the pre-defined patterns; and
in response to a negative identification, initiating, via the processor, a learning process based on intelligence gathered from a manual validation of the software development requirement.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising classifying the software development requirement into at least one of a functional requirement, a non-functional requirement, and a constraint based requirement, wherein identifying the pre-defined rules and the pre-defined patterns is based on classifying the software development requirement.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising classifying the software development requirement into at least one of an action based requirement and a feature based requirement, wherein identifying the pre-defined rules and the pre-defined patterns is based on classifying the software development requirement.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the pre-defined rules and the pre-defined patterns comprises:
building one or more queries based on the plurality of tokens and the pattern; and
executing the one or more queries against the intelligence repository.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the intelligence repository comprises pre-defined patterns, tokens, pre-defined rules for each of the tokens, and at least one of context rules and business domain rules.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein validating further comprises:
determining one or more violations in the software development requirement; and
classifying each of the one or more violations into a violation type.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the violation type comprises at least one of an ambiguous violation, a non-specific violation, a non-atomic violation, an incomplete violation, a duplicate violation, an un-verifiable violation, and a contradiction violation.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein validating further comprises determining one or more omissions in a set of requirements based on a historical pattern derived from a set of past similar requirements.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein initiating the learning process further comprises updating the intelligence repository with the plurality of tokens, the pattern, an outcome of manual validation, and one or more rules.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a report indicating a result of validation and including at least one of a number of software development requirements validated, a number of violations, types of violations, a number of each of the types of violations, and a reason for each of the violations.

11. A system for validating software development requirements, the system comprising:
at least one processor; and
a computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:
accessing a software development requirement;
extracting a plurality of tokens from the software development requirement;
tagging each of the plurality of tokens to a corresponding part of speech;
deriving a pattern based on the plurality of tokens and the plurality of corresponding parts of speech;
determining at least one of a context and a business domain of the software development requirement;
identifying pre-defined rules for the plurality of tokens and pre-defined patterns for the pattern from an intelligence repository based on at least one of the context and the business domain;
in response to a positive identification, validating the software development requirement by analyzing the plurality of tokens against the pre-defined rules and by analyzing the pattern against the pre-defined patterns; and
in response to a negative identification, initiating a learning process based on intelligence gathered from a manual validation of the software development requirement.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise classifying the software development requirement into at least one of a functional requirement, a non-functional requirement, and a constraint based requirement, and wherein identifying the pre-defined rules and the pre-defined patterns is based on classifying the software development requirement.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise classifying the software development requirement into at least one of an action based requirement and a feature based requirement, and wherein identifying the pre-defined rules and the pre-defined patterns is based on classifying the software development requirement.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein identifying the pre-defined rules and the pre-defined patterns comprises:
building one or more queries based on the plurality of tokens and the pattern; and
executing the one or more queries against the intelligence repository.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein validating further comprises:
determining one or more violations in the software development requirement; and
classifying each of the one or more violations into a violation type, the violation type comprising at least one of an ambiguous violation, a non-specific violation, a non-atomic violation, an incomplete violation, a duplicate violation, an un-verifiable violation, and a contradiction violation.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein validating further comprises determining one or more omissions in a set of requirements based on a historical pattern derived from a set of past similar requirements.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein initiating the learning process further comprises updating the intelligence repository with the plurality of tokens, the pattern, an outcome of manual validation, and one or more rules.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise generating a report indicating a result of validation and including at least one of a number of software development requirements validated, a number of violations, types of violations, a number of each of the types of violations, and a reason for each of the violations.

Dated this 28th day of December, 2015
Swetha SN
Of K&S Partners
Agent for the Applicant
, Description:TECHNICAL FIELD
This disclosure relates generally to software development, and more particularly to a system and method for validating software development requirements.