09/24/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 09/24/2024 01:10
The cornerstone of any successful software development project is comprehensive requirements. But gathering, analyzing, documenting, and structuring requirements can be tedious, and the results are often laden with errors.
The traditional process for gathering requirements and documentation is manual, which makes it time-consuming and prone to inaccuracies, omissions, and inconsistencies. This can lead to miscommunication, missed requirements, and costly reworking needed later in the development process, all of which can impact the success of a project.
Here's a glimpse into how our team has been leveraging generative AI to improve the process of requirements gathering. Here's how.
The retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) approach is a powerful technique that leverages the capabilities of Gen AI to make requirements engineering more efficient and effective.
According to Google Cloud, RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) is an AI framework combining the strengths of traditional information retrieval systems (such as databases) with the capabilities of generative large language models (LLMs). By combining this extra knowledge with its own language skills, the AI can write text that is more accurate, up-to-date, and relevant to your specific needs.
As a Google Cloud Partner, in this instance we refer to text-based Gemini 1.5 Pro, a large language model (LLM). Gemini 1.5 Pro automates and enhances requirements engineering, by using a retrieval system that fetches relevant document chunks from a large knowledge base, as well as an LLM that produces answers to prompts using the information from those chunks.
This system excels at interpreting the nuances of human language, allowing it to grasp the true intent behind user inputs and project documentation. Its deep language understanding leads to more accurate and relevant requirements.
Unlike conventional tools that simply rephrase existing information, Gemini 1.5 Pro can generate entirely new content, drawing on its vast knowledge base and understanding of user needs. This fosters innovation and ensures the system caters to unforeseen scenarios.
Gemini 1.5 Pro automates a significant portion of the manual work involved in requirements analysis, saving time and resources. It can handle large volumes of data with ease, making it ideal for complex projects. It's also able to handle various document types, including Word, PDFs, CSV files, etc. It learns quickly with limited data, can reason through complex problems, leverages real-world knowledge, and transfers its learnings across tasks.
The following example illustrates a detailed response delivered through our RAG-based custom LLM, as compared to the response produced by a public LLM:
Prompt | RAG-based LLM response | Public LLM response |
Create user stories on the characteristics of the cloud infrastructure within the conceptual framework such that it illustrates the responsibilities of Cloud Infrastructure Managers in maintaining and optimizing the abstracted compute and networking capabilities in geographically disparate instances. |
The user stories on the characteristics of the cloud infrastructure within the conceptual framework are as follows: As a Cloud Infrastructure Manager, I want to be able to provision compute and networking resources in a geographically disparate manner so that I can meet the needs of my users. As a Cloud Infrastructure Manager, I want to be able to monitor the performance of my cloud infrastructure so that I can ensure that it is meeting the needs of my users. As a Cloud Infrastructure Manager, I want to be able to troubleshoot issues with my cloud infrastructure so that I can resolve them quickly and efficiently. The user stories that illustrate the responsibilities of Cloud Infrastructure Managers in maintaining and optimizing the abstracted compute and networking capabilities in geographically disparate instances are as follows: The Cloud Infrastructure Manager is responsible for provisioning compute and networking resources in a geographically disparate manner so that they can meet the needs of their users. The Cloud Infrastructure Manager is responsible for monitoring the performance of their cloud infrastructure to ensure that it is meeting the needs of their users. The Cloud Infrastructure Manager is responsible for troubleshooting issues with their cloud infrastructure to resolve them quickly and efficiently. |
As a Cloud Infrastructure Manager, I want to be able to easily scale up or down the compute resources in my cloud infrastructure to meet changing demands, without having to worry about the underlying hardware. |
As these examples clearly show, the benefits of a RAG-based approach with Gemini 1.5 Pro include the ability to capture a wider range of stakeholder needs and expectations, which leads to more complete requirements.
Automating manual processes involved in gathering and documenting requirements reduces time spent and minimizes errors. It also proactively identifies dependencies between requirements and ultimately generates well-defined requirements with clear metrics. Thanks to Gemini 1.5 Pro's ability to process large amounts of data, along with the scalability of Google Cloud, complex projects can be handled effectively.
What are the pros/ cons of using Gemini 1.5 Pro for RAG vs. other multimodal AI models?
The following use cases showcase two scenarios where we've found a RAG-based approach to requirements engineeringto be valuable.
Leveraging the cutting-edge capabilities of RAG and Gemini 1.5 Pro LLM offers a promising solution to the challenges faced in traditional requirements engineering. Automating generation, improving accuracy and scope, and ensuring security and explainability revolutionizes the way software requirements are gathered, documented, and managed, leading to a more efficient, effective, and secure the end-product.
Customers can connect to have a detailed discussion on their modernization journey where we can help them through the requirements analysis, functional requirements, epics and User stories generation.
Capgemini Research : https://www.capgemini.com/insights/research-library/generative-ai-in-organizations-2024/