Use case identification of natural language system requirements with graph-based clustering
Schleifer S, Lungu A, Kruse B, van Putten S, Götz S, Wartzack S (2025)
Publication Type: Journal article, Original article
Publication year: 2025
Journal
Book Volume: 11
Article Number: e30
Abstract
Due to the ever-increasing complexity of technical products, the quantity of system requirements, which are typically expressed in natural language, is inevitably rising. Model-based formalization through the application of Model-based Systems Engineering is a common solution to cope with rising complexity. Thereby, grouping requirements to use cases forms the first step towards model-based requirements and allows to improve the understanding of the system. To support this manual and subjective task, automation by artificial intelligence and methods of natural language processing are needed. This contribution proposes a novel pipeline to derive use cases from natural language requirements by considering incomplete manual mappings and the possibility that one requirement contributes to multiple use cases. The approach utilizes semi-supervised requirements graph generation with subsequent overlapping graph clustering. Each identified use case is described by keyphrases to increase accessibility for the user. Industrial requirement sets from the automotive industry are used to evaluate the pipeline in two application scenarios. The proposed pipeline overcomes limitations of prior work in the practical application, which is emphasized by critical discussions with experts from the industry. The proposed pipeline automatically generates proposals for use cases defined in the requirement set, forming the basis for use case diagrams.
Authors with CRIS profile
Simon Schleifer
Chair of Engineering Design (KTmfk)
Stefan Götz
Chair of Engineering Design (KTmfk)
Sandro Wartzack
Chair of Engineering Design (KTmfk)
Involved external institutions
Germany (DE)How to cite
APA:
Schleifer, S., Lungu, A., Kruse, B., van Putten, S., Götz, S., & Wartzack, S. (2025). Use case identification of natural language system requirements with graph-based clustering. Design Science, 11. https://doi.org/10.1017/dsj.2025.10019
MLA:
Schleifer, Simon, et al. "Use case identification of natural language system requirements with graph-based clustering." Design Science 11 (2025).
BibTeX: Download