Bridging the gap between requirements and design: An approach based on Problem Frames and SysML

The relation between the requirements specification and the design has been widely investigated with the aim to bridge the gap between the two artifacts. The goal is to find effective mechanisms to generate the system design starting from the analysis and specification of the requirements. This paper contributes to this research stream with an approach to create early design models from requirement artifacts. The approach weaves together the analysis and design phases favoring a tight collaboration between analysts and designers. It is based on Problem Frames, decomposition and re-composition patterns and supported by the System Modeling Language. The proposed solution has the potentiality of easing the development, shortening the development cycle and reducing the associated cost. The proposed design generation guidelines have been implemented as ATLAS Transformation Language rules in a model-based transformation process. The entire approach is model driven, allowing for the generation of the design model through transformations applied to the requirements model. The design model is automatically generated through the application of the transformation rules described in the paper. The proposed rules are fairly general and can be applied to any analysis model built according to the proposed analysis guidelines. The transformation process can be easily re-implemented using any suitable modeling tool that includes the ATLAS Transformation Language interpretation engine. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.