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Integrating domain knowledge, requirements, and specifications

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Journal of Systems Integration

Abstract

This paper describes efforts to develop a transformation-based software environment that supports the acquisition and validation of software requirements specifications. These requirements may be stated informally at first, and then gradually formalized and elaborated. Support is provided for groups of requirements analysts working together, focusing on different analysis tasks and areas of concern. The environment assists in the validation of formalized requirements by translating them into natural language and graphical diagrams and testing them against a running simulation of the system to be built. Requirements defined in terms of domain concepts are transformed into constraints on system components. The advantages of this approach are that specifications can be traced back to requirements and domain concepts, which in turn have been precisely defined.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. USC/Information Sciences Institute, 90292-6695, Marina del Rey, CA

    W. Lewis Johnson & Martin S. Feather

  2. Lockheed Sanders Signal Processing Center of Technology, 03061-2034, Nashua, NH

    David R. Harris

Authors
  1. W. Lewis Johnson
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  2. Martin S. Feather
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  3. David R. Harris
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Johnson, W.L., Feather, M.S. & Harris, D.R. Integrating domain knowledge, requirements, and specifications. Journal of Systems Integration 1, 283–320 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02262718

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02262718

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