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Informal description and analysis of geographic requirements: an approach based on problems

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Abstract

Software requirements describe a problem in the real world that a software system is intended to solve. Describing requirements is challenging because usually too much attention is given to the final software product instead of concentrating on the problem itself and the real world. The area of geographic applications is no exception. Existing approaches to software development that are specific to the geographic area, for example, GIS tools, spatial databases, geographic query languages, and spatial data structures, are suitable for designing and implementing geographic applications and are, therefore, solution-oriented. We present a problem-oriented approach for requirements description of geographic applications. Most geographic applications are composed of well-known geographic subproblems. The proposed approach provides classes of common geographic subproblems that can be used to promote analysis and description of real-world problems. Each class of problems is presented as a problem frame showing domain properties, requirements and specifications. The problem frames discussed in this work are based on Jackson’s general purpose problem frames and are tailored here for the geographic area. The approach is validated through a case study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Informatics, Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais, Av. Afonso Vaz de Melo, n. 1200, Barreiro de Baixo, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil

    Maria Augusta V. Nelson

  2. Computer Systems Group, School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada

    Paulo S. C. Alencar & Donald D. Cowan

Authors
  1. Maria Augusta V. Nelson
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  2. Paulo S. C. Alencar
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  3. Donald D. Cowan
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Correspondence to Maria Augusta V. Nelson.

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Communicated by Michael Jackson.

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Nelson, M.A.V., Alencar, P.S.C. & Cowan, D.D. Informal description and analysis of geographic requirements: an approach based on problems. Softw Syst Model 6, 223–245 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10270-006-0031-y

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