Abstract

This paper describes efforts to develop a transformation-based software environment which support s the acquisition and validation of software requirement s specifications. These requirements may be stated in-formally at first, and then gradually formalized an d elaborated. Support is provided for groups of requirements analysts working together, focusing on differen t analysis tasks and areas of concern. The environment assists in the validation of formalized requirements b y translating them into natural language and graphica l diagrams, and testing them against a running simulation of the system to be built. Requirements defined in terms of domain concepts are transformed int o constraints on system components. The advantage s of this approach are that specifications can be trace d back to requirements and domain concepts, which in turn have been precisely defined. 1 Introductio n We have built a demonstration requirements/specification environment called ARIES I which requirements analysts may use in evaluating system requirements and codifying them in formal specifications. This work helps to address several roadblocks in providing knowledge-based automated assistance to th e process of developing formal specifications. One of the principal roadblocks is that formal specificatio n languages are difficult to use in requirements acquisition, particularly by people who are not experts i n logic. ARIES provides tools for the gradual evolution of acquired requirements, expressed in hypertext an d graphical diagrams, into formal specifications. The

Citations