An ontology for software requirements modelling

This paper discusses an object-oriented software requirements analysis method. The approach adopted here draws clear distinction between a system's basic structure (i.e. the object model) and its functionalities. The analysis model generated is a description of a problem domain; it consists of a set of primary and secondary objects that characterize the problem domain, and a set of pseudo objects that define the functional requirements of a system. There are two stages of analysis in the proposed method: Object Modelling and Functional Requirements Modelling. These two stages are built upon one another. The aim of the object modelling stage is to derive a model of the problem domain in terms of objects, their classification and inter-relationships with one another. The functional requirements modelling stage builds upon this initial object model to complete the requirement analysis specification. This paper uses a real-life library environment to illustrate how the method can be applied in the specification of an object-oriented software system.

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Interface-Driven Software Requirements Analysis

European Scientific Journal ESJ ◽

10.19044/esj.2016.v12n30p40 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 12 (30) ◽

pp. 40

Author(s):

Rais Aziz Ahmad

Keyword(s):

Software Development ◽

Programming Languages ◽

Object Oriented ◽

Object Oriented Programming ◽

Software Requirements ◽

Development Projects ◽

Worst Case ◽

Analysis And Design ◽

Requirements Modelling ◽

Object Oriented Analysis

Software requirements are one of the root causes of failure for IT software development projects. Reasons for this may be that the requirements are high-level, many might simply be wishes, or frequently changed, or they might be unclear, missing, for example, goals, objectives, strategies, and so on. Another major reason for projects’ failure may also be the use of improper techniques for software requirements specification. Currently, most IT software development projects utilise textual techniques like use cases, user stories, scenarios, and features for software requirements elicitation, analysis and specification. While IT software development processes can construct software in different programming languages, the primary focus here will be those IT projects using object-oriented programming languages. Object-oriented programming itself has several characteristics worth noting, such as its popularity, reusability, modularity, concurrency, abstraction and encapsulation. Object-oriented analysis and design transforms software requirements gathered with textual techniques into object-oriented programming. This transformation can cause complexity in identifying objects, classes and interfaces, which, in turn, complicates the object-oriented analysis and design. Because requirements can change over the course of a project and, likewise, software design can evolve during software construction, the traceability of software requirements with objects and components can become difficult. Apart from leading to project complexity, such a process can impact software quality and, in the worst-case scenario, cause the project to fail entirely. The goal of this article is to provide interface-driven techniques that will reduce ambiguity among software requirements, improve traceability and simplify software requirements modelling.

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