Integrating organizational requirements and object oriented modeling

Abstract

In recent years we have observed a growing influence of the object-oriented paradigm. Unfortunately, the current dominant object oriented modeling technique, i.e. the Unified Modeling Language, UML, is ill equipped for modeling early requirements which are typically informal and often focus on stakeholder objectives. Instead, UML is suitable for later phases of requirement capture which usually focus on completeness, consistency, and automated verification of functional requirements for the new system. We present a set of guidelines for the integration of early and late requirements specifications. For early (organizational) modeling we rely on the i* framework, whereas for late (functional) requirements specification, we rely on a precise subset of UML. A small example is used to illustrate how the requirements process iterates between early and late requirements.