Abstract
A software requirements specification (SRS) provides a detailed description of the requirements of a software system that is to be developed. The Element Quality Indicator (EQI) is a novel method to detect defects and assess the quality of an SRS. It does not hinge on review guidelines and is based on the SRS element questions extraction method (EQEM). In this study, we optimized the EQI and carried out a systematic and comprehensive experiment to validate and evaluate its effectiveness. The controlled experiment, which included 60 software engineering students, found that 100% of the subjects identified defects in the SRS using EQI. Moreover, the results indicated that the average number of defects detected with EQI was greater than that of the classical review technique - perspective-based reading. Furthermore, the controlled experiment demonstrated that EQI provides a comparatively objective and accurate evaluation of the quality of the SRS and markedly diminishes the bias in understanding software requirements due to the ambiguity of natural language.