Black Hole Algorithm for Software Requirements Prioritization

With the increase in complexity in the software development process, the optimization of requirements management has developed into a critical and necessary task in Software Engineering. The selection and prioritization of software requirements is one of the most commonly encountered issues among th...

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Main Authors: Norah Ibrahim Alfassam, M. Abdullah-Al-Wadud, Mubarak Rashed Alrashoud
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
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Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11018326/
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author Norah Ibrahim Alfassam
M. Abdullah-Al-Wadud
Mubarak Rashed Alrashoud
author_facet Norah Ibrahim Alfassam
M. Abdullah-Al-Wadud
Mubarak Rashed Alrashoud
author_sort Norah Ibrahim Alfassam
collection DOAJ
description With the increase in complexity in the software development process, the optimization of requirements management has developed into a critical and necessary task in Software Engineering. The selection and prioritization of software requirements is one of the most commonly encountered issues among the many requirements for software release. Software engineers have introduced several methods for solving these problems. The Black Hole Algorithm (BHA) is a population-based approach. It is among one of the many modern approaches and has been successfully applied to solve optimization problems. The purpose of this study is to provide a BHA-based solution to the Requirements Prioritization (RP) problem. Furthermore, the proposed BHA-based solution was evaluated on three real-world datasets (RALIC, Word, and ReleasePlanner), and its performance was compared with that of multiple state-of-the-art algorithms, including Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), Genetic Algorithm (GA), Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Fitness Dependent Optimizer (FDO), Goose Algorithm (GAO), and Lagrange Elementary Optimization (LEO). The findings show that BHA consistently yielded higher fitness values, reaching 98.37% for Word, 98.82% for ReleasePlanner, and 99.67% for RALIC. In contrast, the highest percentages achieved by PSO were 95.01%, 90.53%, and 94.37%, respectively, while ACO, GA, GWO, FDO, GAO, and LEO also remained behind BHA in all three datasets. Thus, BHA outperforms competing techniques and provides a better solution to the problem of software requirements prioritization.
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spelling doaj-art-4fba8418cbe240e3bf1ab915420975192025-08-20T02:03:15ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362025-01-0113958109582010.1109/ACCESS.2025.357499811018326Black Hole Algorithm for Software Requirements PrioritizationNorah Ibrahim Alfassam0https://orcid.org/0009-0009-6875-4988M. Abdullah-Al-Wadud1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6767-3574Mubarak Rashed Alrashoud2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5902-7414Department of Software Engineering, College of Computer and Information Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi ArabiaDepartment of Software Engineering, College of Computer and Information Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi ArabiaDepartment of Software Engineering, College of Computer and Information Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi ArabiaWith the increase in complexity in the software development process, the optimization of requirements management has developed into a critical and necessary task in Software Engineering. The selection and prioritization of software requirements is one of the most commonly encountered issues among the many requirements for software release. Software engineers have introduced several methods for solving these problems. The Black Hole Algorithm (BHA) is a population-based approach. It is among one of the many modern approaches and has been successfully applied to solve optimization problems. The purpose of this study is to provide a BHA-based solution to the Requirements Prioritization (RP) problem. Furthermore, the proposed BHA-based solution was evaluated on three real-world datasets (RALIC, Word, and ReleasePlanner), and its performance was compared with that of multiple state-of-the-art algorithms, including Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), Genetic Algorithm (GA), Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Fitness Dependent Optimizer (FDO), Goose Algorithm (GAO), and Lagrange Elementary Optimization (LEO). The findings show that BHA consistently yielded higher fitness values, reaching 98.37% for Word, 98.82% for ReleasePlanner, and 99.67% for RALIC. In contrast, the highest percentages achieved by PSO were 95.01%, 90.53%, and 94.37%, respectively, while ACO, GA, GWO, FDO, GAO, and LEO also remained behind BHA in all three datasets. Thus, BHA outperforms competing techniques and provides a better solution to the problem of software requirements prioritization.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11018326/Requirements managementrequirements prioritizationblack hole algorithmmetaheuristic optimization
spellingShingle Norah Ibrahim Alfassam
M. Abdullah-Al-Wadud
Mubarak Rashed Alrashoud
Black Hole Algorithm for Software Requirements Prioritization
IEEE Access
Requirements management
requirements prioritization
black hole algorithm
metaheuristic optimization
title Black Hole Algorithm for Software Requirements Prioritization
title_full Black Hole Algorithm for Software Requirements Prioritization
title_fullStr Black Hole Algorithm for Software Requirements Prioritization
title_full_unstemmed Black Hole Algorithm for Software Requirements Prioritization
title_short Black Hole Algorithm for Software Requirements Prioritization
title_sort black hole algorithm for software requirements prioritization
topic Requirements management
requirements prioritization
black hole algorithm
metaheuristic optimization
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11018326/
work_keys_str_mv AT norahibrahimalfassam blackholealgorithmforsoftwarerequirementsprioritization
AT mabdullahalwadud blackholealgorithmforsoftwarerequirementsprioritization
AT mubarakrashedalrashoud blackholealgorithmforsoftwarerequirementsprioritization