Requirement Engineering Technique for Smart Spaces

A smart space is an increasingly important application of Internet of Things (IoT), which is being developed throughout the world for different purposes ranging from home automation to smart grids. However, a common approach for requirement capture and specification at an abstract level is needed in smart space development that is independent of the continuously changing technology. To provide a systematic process, the standard software engineering practices can be used in the smart space development, and hence take advantages of. In this context, this paper contributes in the field of requirement engineering for smart spaces by introducing the requirement specification technique based on software engineering Use Case concept. The conventional Use Case structure and the way it is described are modified to suit the requirements of smart spaces. The case of a hypothetical smart space development is considered, where the proposed requirement specification technique is applied and a Use Case repository is developed that can be used as a canonical resource for other researchers to draw upon. The implementation provides profound descriptions on how to use the proposed requirement specification technique during the development of smart spaces and in other application areas of IoT. This work can be used as a first step towards defining the smart space development framework, of which the proposed technique would be a key element.