Verification of i* Models Using Alloy

Abstract

Many modelling techniques focus on the later stages of requirements engineering and the design phase while not paying adequate attention to the earlier phases of requirements engineering. The i* framework is a conceptual modelling language, which can be used to model an information system and its bounding environment together with the rationales for a particular system-environment configuration. However, the i* framework has limited tool support for analysis. Alloy on the other hand is a modelling language that has tool support for automatic analysis. Combining the strengths of these two frameworks from the early stages of software development will provide better verification and validation mechanism. This paper presents the model transformation approach from i* to Alloy and demonstrates the synergy between these two frameworks by way of an example of a meeting scheduler.