From state diagrams to sequence diagrams: a requirements acquisition approach

Multiple-viewed requirements modeling allows modelers to focus on different aspects of a system’s requirements and express them in appropriate modeling notations. As a result, the requirements are scattered in a set of different models. The semantic overlap among them makes model transformation possible, and such a transformation can be used for acquiring requirements knowledge. In this paper, we demonstrate the process of deriving a set of sequence diagrams with requirements knowledge acquisition opportunities from a state diagram. This set can be used as a requirements elicitation medium for sequence diagram modelers. The transformation is based on the rich semantic relationship between the two diagrams and proved graph theory algorithms for finding sequences. The set of derived sequence diagrams is consistent with the state model and achieves minimum state transition path coverage in the state diagram. Such a set of sequence diagrams with knowledge acquisition opportunities can be used as a modest spur to induce human modelers to provide valuable requirements knowledge. © 2017, © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.