Architecture as an Emergent Property of Requirements Integration
Author(s)
Dromey, Geoff
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2003
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Despite the advances in software engineering since 1968, how to go from a set of functional requirements to an architecture that accommodates those requirements remains a challenging problem. Progress with this fundamental problem is possible once we recognize (1) that individual functional requirements represent fragments of behaviour, (2) a design that satisfies a set of functional requirements represents integrated behaviour, and (3) an architecture must accommodate the integrated behaviour expressed in a set of functional requirements. This perspective admits the prospect of constructing a design out of its requirements. ...
View more >Despite the advances in software engineering since 1968, how to go from a set of functional requirements to an architecture that accommodates those requirements remains a challenging problem. Progress with this fundamental problem is possible once we recognize (1) that individual functional requirements represent fragments of behaviour, (2) a design that satisfies a set of functional requirements represents integrated behaviour, and (3) an architecture must accommodate the integrated behaviour expressed in a set of functional requirements. This perspective admits the prospect of constructing a design out of its requirements. A formal representation for individual functional requirements, called behavior trees makes this possible. Behaviour trees of individual functional requirements may be composed, one at a time, to create an integrated design behaviour tree. From this problem domain representation it is then possible to transition directly and systematically to a solution domain representation of the component architecture of the system and the behaviour designs of the individual components that make up the system - both are emergent properties.
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View more >Despite the advances in software engineering since 1968, how to go from a set of functional requirements to an architecture that accommodates those requirements remains a challenging problem. Progress with this fundamental problem is possible once we recognize (1) that individual functional requirements represent fragments of behaviour, (2) a design that satisfies a set of functional requirements represents integrated behaviour, and (3) an architecture must accommodate the integrated behaviour expressed in a set of functional requirements. This perspective admits the prospect of constructing a design out of its requirements. A formal representation for individual functional requirements, called behavior trees makes this possible. Behaviour trees of individual functional requirements may be composed, one at a time, to create an integrated design behaviour tree. From this problem domain representation it is then possible to transition directly and systematically to a solution domain representation of the component architecture of the system and the behaviour designs of the individual components that make up the system - both are emergent properties.
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Conference Title
STRAW’03: Second International SofTware requirements to Architectures Workshop