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an abstract conceptual art piece representing the "Refine and Thought" (RaT) method. The artwork includes neural network motifs intertwined with classical engineering symbols like gears and blueprints. Central to the image is a stylized brain emitting light beams onto a book labeled 'Requirements Engineering.'

Automated User Story Generation with Test Case Specification Using Large Language Model

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Written by Tajmilur Rahman, Yuecai Zhu

Category: AI for IT

Publication Date: 2024-04-01

SEO Description: Transforming software requirements into user stories and tests via AI, boosting engineer productivity.

Rahman, Tajmilur, and Yuecai Zhu. Automated User Story Generation with Test Case Specification Using Large Language Model. 1, arXiv:2404.01558, arXiv, 1 Apr. 2024, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2404.01558.

Keywords

Automated User Story Generation, Test Case Specification, Large Language Model, Software Engineering, Productivity

AI-Generated Paper Summary

Generated by Ethical AI Researcher GPT

Summary: The paper titled “Automated User Story Generation with Test Case Specification Using Large Language Models” by Tajmilur Rahman and Yuecai Zhu explores the automation of user story generation from software requirements documents using AI, specifically through the application of Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT-4. The authors introduce “GeneUS,” a tool designed to generate user stories automatically from requirements, focusing on improving software development efficiency by reducing the manual effort involved in the Requirements Engineering (RE) phase. They address the issue of LLM “hallucinations” or errors, by introducing a specialized prompting method called Refine and Thought (RaT), enhancing the LLM’s ability to process and generate more accurate outputs.

Degree of Ethical Match: 4/5 The paper aligns strongly with ethical AI practices as it focuses on enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of AI outputs in software development, improving the productivity of human workers and not replacing them. It promotes transparency and accountability by discussing the limitations and errors (hallucinations) of LLMs and the measures taken to mitigate them.

Author Caliber: The authors are credible, with the first author affiliated with the University of Saskatchewan, and the second from Bell Mobility’s Enterprise Data Platform. Their backgrounds in computer science and data platforms suggest a robust understanding of the software and AI fields, which is evident in the novel approach of their research.

Novelty & Merit:

  1. Introduction of the “GeneUS” tool which automates user story generation from requirements documents.
  2. Development of the RaT prompting method to reduce errors in AI-generated text.
  3. The paper explores a new domain of applying LLMs in automating the Agile software development process, particularly the RE phase.

Findings and Conclusions:

  1. The GeneUS tool successfully automates the creation of user stories, significantly reducing the manual effort required in the RE phase.
  2. The RaT prompting method improves the quality of the outputs by minimizing errors and inconsistencies known as hallucinations.
  3. Feedback from 50 software developers indicates that while the tool performs well, there is room for improvement, especially in specificity and technical details of the generated user stories.

Commercial Applications:

  1. Integration with project management tools like Jira and Azure DevOps to streamline the software development process.
  2. Potential to improve software quality and project management efficiency in IT companies.
  3. Can be used as a teaching tool in software engineering education to demonstrate the application of AI in real-world scenarios.

Author’s Abstract

Modern Software Engineering era is moving fast with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI), especially Large Language Models (LLM). Researchers have already started automating many parts of the software development workflow. Requirements Engineering (RE) is a crucial phase that begins the software development cycle through multiple discussions on a proposed scope of work documented in different forms. RE phase ends with a list of user-stories for each unit task identified through discussions and usually these are created and tracked on a project management tool such as Jira, AzurDev etc. In this research we developed a tool “GeneUS” using GPT-4.0 to automatically create user stories from requirements document which is the outcome of the RE phase. The output is provided in JSON format leaving the possibilities open for downstream integration to the popular project management tools. Analyzing requirements documents takes significant effort and multiple meetings with stakeholders. We believe, automating this process will certainly reduce additional load off the software engineers, and increase the productivity since they will be able to utilize their time on other prioritized tasks.

Read the full paper here

Last updated on April 30th, 2024.