Abstract – A Verification Cross-Reference Matrix (VCRM) is a table that depicts the verification methods for requirements in a specification. Usually requirement labels are rows, available test methods are columns, and an “X” in a cell indicates usage of a verification method for that requirement. Verification methods include Demonstration, Inspection, Analysis and Test, and sometimes Certification, Similarity and/or Analogy. VCRMs enable acquirers and stakeholders to quickly understand how a product’s requirements will be tested.Maintaining consistency of very large VCRMs can be challenging, and inconsistent verification methods can result in a large set of uncoordinated “spaghetti tests”. Natural language processing algorithms that can identify similarities between requirements offer promise in addressing this challenge.This paper applies and compares compares four natural language processing algorithms to the problem of automatically populating VCRMs from natural language requirements: Naïve Bayesian inference, (b) Nearest Neighbor by weighted Dice similarity, (c) Nearest Neighbor with Latent Semantic Analysis similarity, and (d) an ensemble method combining the first three approaches. The VCRMs used for this study are for slot machine technical requirements derived from gaming regulations from the countries of Australia and New Zealand, the province of Nova Scotia (Canada), the state of Michigan (United States) and recommendations from the International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR).
Application of natural language processing algorithms for extracting information from news articles in event-based surveillance
