Theory of Regulatory Compliance for Requirements Engineering

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical framework for understanding and verifying regulatory compliance in requirements engineering, addressing a gap in the foundational understanding of compliance processes.

Contribution

It introduces a formal theory defining requirements compliance, the compliance problem, and testable hypotheses, supported by a practical framework and real-world case study.

Findings

Defines what compliance means in requirements engineering

Identifies the core compliance verification problem

Provides a practical framework and case study example

Abstract

Regulatory compliance is increasingly being addressed in the practice of requirements engineering as a main stream concern. This paper points out a gap in the theoretical foundations of regulatory compliance, and presents a theory that states (i) what it means for requirements to be compliant, (ii) the compliance problem, i.e., the problem that the engineer should resolve in order to verify whether requirements are compliant, and (iii) testable hypotheses (predictions) about how compliance of requirements is verified. The theory is instantiated by presenting a requirements engineering framework that implements its principles, and is exemplified on a real-world case study.