Supporting scenario-based requirements engineering

Abstract

Scenarios have been advocated as a means of improving requirements engineering yet few methods or tools exist to support scenario based RE. The paper reports a method and software assistant tool for scenario based RE that integrates with use case approaches to object oriented development. The method and operation of the tool are illustrated with a financial system case study. Scenarios are used to represent paths of possible behavior through a use case, and these are investigated to elaborate requirements. The method commences by acquisition and modeling of a use case. The use case is then compared with a library of abstract models that represent different application classes. Each model is associated with a set of generic requirements for its class, hence, by identifying the class(es) to which the use case belongs, generic requirements can be reused. Scenario paths are automatically generated from use cases, then exception types are applied to normal event sequences to suggest possible abnormal events resulting from human error. Generic requirements are also attached to exceptions to suggest possible ways of dealing with human error and other types of system failure. Scenarios are validated by rule based frames which detect problematic event patterns. The tool suggests appropriate generic requirements to deal with the problems encountered. The paper concludes with a review of related work and a discussion of the prospects for scenario based RE methods and tools.