POM: A Trust-Based AHP-Like Methodology to Solve Conflict Requirements for the IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an environment of interconnected entities which are identifiable, usable and controllable via the Internet. Trust is necessary for a system such as the IoT as the entities involved should know the other entities they have to interact with. In order to guarantee trust in an IoT entity, it is useful to consider it during all its System Development Life Cycle (SDLC). The requirements phase is one of the first and the most important phases of the SDLC. In this phase, trust requirements must be elicited in order to guarantee that the built entity can be trusted. However, during this phase, it is possible to raise conflicts among requirements reflecting conflicting needs. Decision-making processes can be helpful in order to solve these issues. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a discipline that supports decision-makers in choosing between heterogeneous and conflicting alternatives, but it has several problems, especially if there are numerous parameters. Thus, we propose an AHP-like methodology called Pairwise Ordination Method (POM). Its aim is to solve issues among conflicting requirements deciding which one is the less important in order to modify or delete it, maximising the trust level of the IoT entity under development.