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Topsy-turvy requirements

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Abstract

A cyber-physical system comprises an assemblage of given material and human domains together with the computing element or elements introduced to control them. Requirements for such systems can be understood as properties of system behaviours: the central task of system development is to design the overall behaviour of the system to satisfy these requirements. This overall behaviour can be regarded as a structure of simplified independent behaviours, modified and recombined to address their interactions. A widely adopted approach to requirements perversely conceals this structure.

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Acknowledgments

I thank David Harel, Mats Heimdahl and Daniel Jackson for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

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  1. Department of Computing, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK

    Michael Jackson

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  1. Michael Jackson
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Correspondence to Michael Jackson.

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Jackson, M. Topsy-turvy requirements. Requirements Eng 19, 107–111 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00766-013-0179-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00766-013-0179-2

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