• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Automated requirement contradiction detection through formal logic and LLMs
  • Contributor: Gärtner, Alexander Elenga; Göhlich, Dietmar
  • Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2024
  • Published in: Automated Software Engineering, 31 (2024) 2
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1007/s10515-024-00452-x
  • ISSN: 0928-8910; 1573-7535
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: AbstractThis paper introduces ALICE (Automated Logic for Identifying Contradictions in Engineering), a novel automated contradiction detection system tailored for formal requirements expressed in controlled natural language. By integrating formal logic with advanced large language models (LLMs), ALICE represents a significant leap forward in identifying and classifying contradictions within requirements documents. Our methodology, grounded on an expanded taxonomy of contradictions, employs a decision tree model addressing seven critical questions to ascertain the presence and type of contradictions. A pivotal achievement of our research is demonstrated through a comparative study, where ALICE’s performance markedly surpasses that of an LLM-only approach by detecting 60% of all contradictions. ALICE achieves a higher accuracy and recall rate, showcasing its efficacy in processing real-world, complex requirement datasets. Furthermore, the successful application of ALICE to real-world datasets validates its practical applicability and scalability. This work not only advances the automated detection of contradictions in formal requirements but also sets a precedent for the application of AI in enhancing reasoning systems within product development. We advocate for ALICE’s scalability and adaptability, presenting it as a cornerstone for future endeavors in model customization and dataset labeling, thereby contributing a substantial foundation to requirements engineering.