Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-0-355-82754-5
D.Engr.
Systems Engineering
The George Washington University
2018
This paper presents the results of research that uses several Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methods for stakeholder-input prioritization during requirements definition. Developing a comprehensive requirements document is a complex task. Stakeholder inputs are a key factor for the development of an efficient and effective requirements document. Gathering and processing these inputs can be daunting and doing so often leads to injecting subjectivity of the requirements analyst. The challenges of complexity and subjectivity can be effectively addressed by prioritizing, justifying, and documenting each requirement. For this work, the research used stakeholder inputs from a Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) operational scenario as a case study. The research proposes a novel consecutive approach, where MCDA algorithms are used in stages and feed further MCDA algorithms in succession to prioritize stakeholder elicitations. The research demonstrates that this approach reduces the level of subjectivity introduced into the requirements definition by the definer of the requirements.