A practical approach to combining requirements definition and object-oriented analysis

According to our experience in real-world projects, we still observe deficiencies of current methods for object-oriented analysis (OOA), especially in respect to the early elicitation and definition of requirements. Therefore, we used object-oriented technology and hypertext to develop a practical approach - with tool support - that tightly combines OOA with requirements definition. This novel approach is compatible with virtually any OOA method. While more work needs to be done especially for supporting the process of requirements definition, the observed deficiencies and current limitations of existing OOA methods are addressed and partly removed through this combination. We have applied our approach in real-world projects, and our experience suggests the usefulness of this approach. Essentially, its use leads to a more complete and structured definition of the requirements, and consequently we derive some recommendations for practitioners.