Date of Award

Spring 2012

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Department

Computing and Software

Supervisor

Douglas Down

Co-Supervisor

Alan Wassyng

Language

English

Committee Member

Tom Maibaum

Abstract

An interest has been established in the identification, documentation and classifi- cation of the environmental assumptions that are missing from the original PACE- MAKER System Specification. This thesis addresses the presented challenge and documents the procedure used to identify, classify, and document these missing en- vironmental assumptions.

In summary, this thesis answers the following questions:

  1. What can be done in order to improve the original PACEMAKER System

    Specification with respect to environmental assumptions?

  2. Why is it beneficial, in terms of enhancing software quality, to include the doc- umentation of environmental assumptions – which sometimes are (wrongfully) perceived as being collateral and optional – as part of the software requirements document?

  3. How should such environmental assumptions be documented?

More specifically, this thesis • Presents an abstract model for the PACEMAKER system. • Identifies system boundaries and interfaces in the PACEMAKER model. • Identifies environmental assumptions for the PACEMAKER system.

• Presents a classification system for the environmental assumptions identified for the PACEMAKER system based on the proposed model.

• Proposes a process for identifying environmental assumptions.

Furthermore, the research findings presented in this thesis are not limited to the PACEMAKER system. The documentation convention proposed in this thesis is meant to be generalized and can be extended to address similar documentation needs posed by all kinds of software systems. Additionally, the process of environmental assumptions elicitation described in this thesis provides a useful reference for con- ducting similar assumption identification projects. Lastly, the classification system presented in this thesis for the environmental assumptions exhibits one facet of a grander conceptual system – one that incorporates multiple ‘views’ of the same set of assumptions, with each view being distinguished by a unique set of classification criteria.

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