Problem-oriented security patterns for requirements engineering
Azadeh Alebrahim, Maritta Heisel · 2014
Security is one essential quality requirement that needs to be addressed during the software development process. While quality requirements such as security are supposed to be the architectural drivers, architecture solutions such as security patterns represent design decisions on the architecture and design levels that in turn might constrain quality requirements significantly. Thus, knowledge which is gained in the solution space, for example from security patterns, should be reflected in the requirements engineering to obtain sound architectures and correct requirements. We propose to reuse security patterns in the requirements engineering in a systematic manner to equip requirement models with security solution approaches early in the software development process. To this end, we propose problem-oriented security patterns. Each problem-oriented security pattern consists of a three-part graphical pattern representing the functional problem which describes the functional requirement annotated with a security requirement, the solution to the security requirement, and the composition of them. In addition, we provide a template that captures the affect of applying the security solution on the requirement models.