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Automating the reuse of domain knowledge to improve the modelling outcome from interactions between developers and clients

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Abstract

Informal interactions with clients are prone to errors in interpretation and communication which can later result in errors in the ensuing requirements models. Resolving such errors early can prevent rework or the building of a system that is non-compliant with the client’s intention. In developing complex systems and highly interactive systems, such as agent oriented systems, those errors in requirement analysis are even more likely. By focussing on the quality of interactions between the future users of the system and the human modellers, this article presents an innovative validation and verification process to support analysis of requirement analysis. We use domain knowledge to validate compliance with the client’s intention. Using layered abstractions, we formulate the validation process which is methodology independent. An interactive support tool is implemented to support the developers using the requirement analysis process. The process is conducted iteratively to accommodate the lifecycle defined by most methodologies. The process and the tool are validated and illustrated using two different development exemplars illustrating different domains and different development methodologies.

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Notes

  1. We acquired access to these specifications courtesy of our academic collaborators, Prof. Sterling from Melbourne and Dr Tootell from Wollongong.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by the Australian Research Council through Grant DP0878172. The authors would like to thank colleagues, Prof. Sterling and Dr. Tootell for providing access to their project specification which underpinned the development exemplars. The authors would like acknowledge the research students, B. Liu and B. Lu for taking part in the evaluation. Last but by no means least, the authors would like to express gratitude to the anonymous reviewers who generously went through the manuscript. Their input has been instrumental in improving the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Information Systems and Technology, University of Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia

    Antonio Lopez-Lorca & Ghassan Beydoun

  2. Faculty of Computer Science, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain

    Rafael Valencia-Garcia & Rodrigo Martínez-Béjar

Authors
  1. Antonio Lopez-Lorca
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  2. Ghassan Beydoun
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  3. Rafael Valencia-Garcia
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  4. Rodrigo Martínez-Béjar
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Correspondence to Ghassan Beydoun.

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Lopez-Lorca, A., Beydoun, G., Valencia-Garcia, R. et al. Automating the reuse of domain knowledge to improve the modelling outcome from interactions between developers and clients. Computing 98, 609–640 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00607-015-0473-6

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