Abstract
The scenario technique is an interesting approach for eliciting requirements. A formal approach to scenario generation has made it even more attractive. The next logical step is to integrate several scenarios into one single, consistent, specification. In this work, a mixed approach, involving formal and informal steps is proposed for performing this task. The system's formal specification is expressed as a finite state machine. The specifications of two interacting scenarios are integrated in a procedure involving formal and informal steps. Then several algorithms based on the properties of the model, are applied to detect three classes of errors: mistakes made by the analyst during the informal steps of the integration, inconsistencies between the scenarios, and incompleteness of both scenarios. Each algorithm detects the corresponding specification errors and in addition, suggests the corrections to apply. The formal techniques applied in this work could be the basis of a CASE tool for scenario‐based requirements engineering.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ardis, M.A. (1994), “Scenario Analysis Example is Flawed,” IEEE Software, July 1994, Mailbox, 5.
Dardenne, A. (1993), “On the Use of Scenarios in Requirements Acquisition,” Technical Report CIS-TR-93-17, University of Oregon, August 1993.
Hooper, J.W. and P. Hsia (1982), “Scenario-Based Prototyping for Requirements Identification,” Software Engineering Notes 7,5, 88–95.
Hsia, P., J. Samuel, J. Gao, D. Kung, Y. Toyoshima and C. Chen (1994), “Formal Approach to Scenario Analysis,” IEEE Software, March 1994, 33–41.
Kemmerer, R.A. (1990), “Integrating Formal Methods into the Development Process,” IEEE Software, September 1990, 37–51.
Lustman, F. (1994), “Specifying Transaction-Based Information Systems with Regular Expressions,” IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 20,3, 207–217.
Lustman, F. (1995), “On the Use of Formal Methods to Integrate Scenarios,” Publication #984, Département d'Informatique et de Recherche Opérationnelle, Université de Montréal.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lustman, F. A formal approach to scenario integration. Annals of Software Engineering 3, 255–271 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018973501964
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018973501964