Our goal in this paper is to introduce and motivate a methodology, called Tropos, for building agent oriented software systems. Tropos is based on two key ideas. First, the notion of agent and all related mentalistic notions (for instance goals and plans) are used in all phases of software development, from early analysis down to the actual implementation. Second, Tropos covers also the very early phases of requirements analysis, thus allowing for a deeper understanding of the environment where the software must operate, and of the kind of interactions that should occur between software and human agents. The methodology is illustrated with the help of a case study. The Tropos language for conceptual modeling is formalized in a metamodel described with a set of UML class diagrams.

Requirements are usually understood as stating what a system is supposed to do, as opposed to how it should do it. However, understanding the organizational context and rationales (the "Whys") that lead up to systems requirements can be just as important for the ongoing success of the system. Requirements modelling techniques can be used to help deal with the knowledge and reasoning needed in this earlier phase of requirements engineering. However, most existing requirements techniques are intended more for the later phase of requirements engineering, which focuses on completeness, consistency, and automated verification of requirements. In contrast, the early phase aims to model and analyze stakeholder interests and how they might be addressed, or compromised, by various system-and-environment alternatives. This paper argues, therefore, that a different kind of modelling and reasoning support is needed for the early phase. An outline of the i framework is given as an example of a ...

In this paper1, we investigate and discuss the underlying nature of the requirements traceability problem. Our work is based on empirical studies, involving over 100 practitioners, and an evaluation of current support. We introduce the distinction between pre-requirements specification (pre-RS) traceability and post-requirements specification (post-RS) traceability, to demonstrate why an all-encompassing solution to the problem is unlikely, and to provide a framework through which to understand its multifaceted nature. We report how the majority of the problems attributed to poor requirements traceability are due to inadequate pre-RS traceability and show the fundamental need for improvements here. In the remainder of the paper, we present an analysis of the main barriers confronting such improvements in practice, identify relevant areas in which

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Information systems of the future will have to perform well within ever-changing organizational environments. Unfortunately, existing software development methodologies (object-oriented, structured or otherwise) have traditionally been inspired by programming concepts, not organizational ones, leading to a semantic gap between the software system and its operational environment. To reduce this gap, we propose a software development methodology named Tropos which is founded on concepts used to model early requirements. Our proposal adopts the i* organizational modeling framework, which o#ers the notions of actor, goal and (actor) dependency, and uses these as a foundation to model early and late requirements, architectural and detailed design. The paper outlines Tropos phases through an e-business example, and sketches a formal language which underlies the methodology and is intended to support formal analysis. The methodology seems to complement well proposals for agent-oriented programming platforms.

Goals capture, at different levels of abstraction, the various objectives the system under consideration should achieve.

Information systems of the future will have to better match their operational organizational environment. Unfortunately, development methodologies have traditionally been inspired by programming concepts, not organizational ones, leading to a semantic gap between the system and its environment. To reduce as much as possible this gap, this paper proposes a development methodology named Tropos which is founded on concepts used to model early requirements. Our proposal adopts the i* organizational modeling framework [21], which offers the notions of actor, goal and (actor) dependency, and uses these as a foundation to model early and late requirements, architectural and detailed design. The paper outlines Tropos phases through an e-business example, and sketches a formal language which underlies the methodology and is intended to support formal analysis. The methodology seems to complement well proposals for agent-oriented programming platforms.

Our goal in this paper is to introduce and motivate a methodology, called Tropos, for building agent oriented software systems. Tropos is based on two key ideas. First, the notion of agent and all the related mentalistic notions (for instance: beliefs, goals, actions and plans) are used in all phases of software development, from the early analysis down to the actual implementation. Second, Tropos covers also the very early phases of requirements analysis, thus allowing for a deeper understanding of the environment where the software must operate, and of the kind of interactions that should occur between software and human agents. The methodology is illustrated with the help of a case study.

Research issues related to requirements modeling are introduced and discussed through a review of the requirements modeling language RML, its peers and its successors from the time it was first proposed at the Sixth International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE-6) to the present---ten ICSEs later. We note that the central theme of "Capturing More World Knowledge" in the original RML proposal is becoming increasingly important in Requirements Engineering. The paper highlights key ideas and research issues that have driven RML and its peers, evaluates them retrospectively in the context of experience and more recent developments, and points out significant remaining problems and directions for requirements modeling research. 1. Introduction "...Requirements definition is a careful assessment of the needs that a system is to fulfill. It must say why a system is needed, based on current and foreseen conditions, which may be internal operations or an external market. It must say wh...

. As information systems are increasingly being called upon to play vital roles in organizations, conceptual modelling techniques need to be extended to relate information structures and processes to business and organizational objectives. We propose a framework which focuses on the modelling of strategic actor relationships ("A-R") for a richer conceptual model of business processes in their organizational settings. Organizations are viewed as being madeup of social actors who are intentional -- have motivations, wants, and beliefs -- and strategic -- they evaluate their relationships to each other in terms of opportunities and vulnerabilities. The framework supports formal modelling of the network of dependency relationships among actors, and the systematic exploration and assessment of alternative process designs in reengineering. The semantics of the modelling concepts are axiomatically characterized. By embedding the framework in the Telos language, the framework can also potentia...