Operationalizing Large Language Models for Automated Software Requirement Interpretation and Change Impact Analysis

Abstract

In fast-evolving software systems, effective 'natural language requirements parsing' and downstream change effect analysis capability across a multitude of codes represents low-hanging-fruit in this regard. We present a structured framework to deploy Large Language Models (LLMs) for automating two essential software engineering tasks, namely requirement interpretation and change impact analysis Utilizing the inherent understanding of semantics offered by transformer-based LLMs, the novel approach advances by converting vague and unstructured requirement documents into structured but machine-readable specifications to offer a direct traceability mapping from requirements to system components. Additionally, the framework leverages LLM-driven dependency analysis to predict and quantify how change effects percolate through connected modules which can minimize manual effort and human errors. This approach combines prompt engineering and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) for domain-relevant accuracy plus fine-tuning techniques. On open-source and enterprise-grade software projects, experimental evaluations show that disambiguation accuracy, traceability precision, and change impact coverage of our approach are orders of magnitude better than state-of-the-art rule-based or static analysis tools. Notes: The results illustrate the application of LLMs at scale and demonstrate how these can alter software engineering workflows by removing bottlenecks (at a massive scale) at different stages of the software development lifecycle. In this research, we provide a generalizable pipeline that helps to bridge the gap from NLP advancements into practice for software lifecycle management.