****************REQUIREMENTS ENGINEERING NEWSLETTER******************** APOLOGIES FOR PREVIOUS MESSAGES! NOTE: IMPORTANT CHANGES! No. 38. Contents 1. Message from the Moderator! (Anthony Finkelstein) 2. System Modelling and System Engineering Tools Home Page (John Nallon) 3. SRE mailing list WWW site (Didar Zowghi) 4. Rapid Prototyping Home Page (Ian Mitchell) 5. Domain Knowledge for Interactive System Design CFP (Alistair Sutcliffe) 6. User-Centred Requirements Engineering CFP (Sara Jones) 7. NATURE final workshop (Ralf Doemges) 8. Viewpoints in Requirements Engineering (Orlena "Olly" Gotel) 9. UK Research Positions (Chris Johnson) 10. UK Academic Post (Ian Sommerville) 11. Enterprise Modelling WWW Resource (John Gundry) 12. OOD and RA Teaching material available (Edward V. Berard) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | If you have questions about particular items appearing in the newsletter - | | send them to the originators. If you wish to contribute send your material | | to the moderator at: requirements@cs.city.ac.uk | | | | Subscription (or removal) requests should be sent to: | | requirements-request@cs.city.ac.uk Just send an email message containing: | | | | subscribe
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| | | | The Requirements Engineering Newsletter and its archive is also accessible | | through WWW. The URL is: | | | | http://web.cs.city.ac.uk/homes/acwf/rehome.html | | | | You may wish to link any Internet software engineering information resource | | you maintain to this and/or notify the manager of your local Web server by | | passing this message on to them. If you wish your requirements or software | | engineering pages to be linked to the RE Newsletter page please inform me. | | | | You can access the archive via anonymous ftp: | | | | Ftp-host : ftp.cs.city.ac.uk (IP number: 138.40.91.9) | | Directory : pub/requirements | | Files are called renl1, renl2, etc. | | | | Requirements Engineering Newsletter is published solely as an educational | | service. Copyright (c) 1995, Anthony Finkelstein; All Rights Reserved. | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ********************************************************************** From: acwf@cs.city.ac.uk (Anthony Finkelstein) Subject: Message from the Moderator! Many of you will already be aware that the proposal to establish a European Network of Excellence in Requirements Engineering (RENOIR) has been successful. I hope that this will give a significant boost to RE research, training and technology transfer. The proposal can be viewed at - http://web.cs.city.ac.uk/homes/gespan/projects/renoir/cover.html It includes links to most of the participating groups. The number of WWW resources relevant to RE is exploding. Some very good resources are included in this newsletter. I strongly urge that readers take some time to browse them. ********************************************************************* From: nallon@nile.slate.tdtech.com (John Nallon) Subject: System Modelling and System Engineering Tools Home Page The NCOSE Tools Working Group home page is up and running. The home page which includes the Requirements Mgt Tool Vendor Survey results. You can find it within the NCOSE Home Page (http://usw.interact.net:80/NCOSE/) under what's "new". Take a look. Comments are welcome. ********************************************************************* From: Didar Zowghi Subject: SRE mailing list WWW site We now have a web site on WWW for the SRE mailing list: http://www-comp.mpce.mq.edu.au/jrcase/require-eng.html ********************************************************************* From: cs0imi@isis.sunderland.ac.uk (Ian.Mitchell) Subject: Rapid Prototyping Home Page now operational The WWW Home Page of the Rapid Prototyping Laboratory at the University of Sunderland is now fully operational. Features include information on the LOCANA rapid prototyping CASE tool, links to other sites dealing with O-O, RP and requirements analysis, a reading list, and an interactive weekly quiz page(!) which poses multiple choice questions on software engineering. The URL is : http://osiris.sunderland.ac.uk/research/canopus/mitchell/rpl.html ********************************************************************* From: A.G.Sutcliffe@city.ac.uk (Alistair Sutcliffe) Subject: Domain Knowledge for Interactive System Design Ist Call for Papers. IFIP WG 8.1/13.2 Joint Working Conference Domain Knowledge for Interactive System Design May 8-10th 1996: Geneva, Switzerland Program Chairs : Alistair Sutcliffe, City University, UK, Frans Van Assche, Consultant, Belgium, David Benyon, Open University, UK General Chair: Janis Bubenko, SISU, Sweden Local Organiser: Michel Leonard, University of Geneva, Switzerland There is growing awareness of the importance of the need for explicit capture and recording of domain knowledge in systems development. Analysis and definition of requirements depends critically on domain knowledge and use of such knowledge has vital influence on requirements and design of interactive systems. This working conference will bring together researchers and practitioners in information systems, software engineering and human computer interaction who have interests in domain analysis and modelling. The objective will be to advance understanding about how domain knowledge and its acquisition can empower system development methods, techniques for human computer interaction and development support in CASE tools. Papers are sought on a variety of themes relating to domain analysis and modelling: * Methods and techniques for analysis and modelling domain knowledge * Definitions, metaschema and languages for domain modelling * Development and use of domain knowledge in requirements engineering * Impact of domains on functional and non functional requirements * Domain analysis and modelling for software reuse * Techniques for domain knowledge acquisition and model representation * Groupware and collaborative capture of domain knowledge * Use and integration of domain knowledge in task and interaction design * Enterprise models and knowledge of business contexts The above topics span the acquisition, representation and use of domain knowledge in systems development, although the list is not intended to be exhaustive. Papers which support their theoretical contributions with empirical evidence will be favoured. Key Dates: Papers, (4 copies) of not more than 5000 words, for research contributions and/or industrial experience should be sent, by 30th October 1995, to: Professor Alistair Sutcliffe +44-171-477-8411 Centre for HCI Design, School of Informatics, +44-171-477-8859 FAX City University, Northampton Square, Email a.g.sutcliffe@city.ac.uk London EC1V 0HB., UK. Programme Committee Arne Solvberg, Univ. of Trondheim Colette Rolland, Univ of Paris 1 Barbara Pernici, Politechnico Milano Tony Wasserman, IDE Peri Loucopoulos, UMIST John Long , University College, London John Dowell, University College, London Peter Johnson , Queen Mary Westfield College, London David Benyon , Open University Michael Tauber, Univ. of Paderborn Jack Carroll , Virginia Tech Allan Maclean , Rank Xerox EUROPARC Susan Harker , Loughborough University Anthony Finkelstein, City University David Till, City University, London Matthias Jarke, Univ. of Aachen John Mylopoulos, Univ. of Toronto Gerhard Fischer, Univ. of Colorado Dr Gilles Falquet, Univ. of Geneva Prof Yves Pigneur, Univ. of Lausanne Kevin Ryan, Univ. of Limerick Steve Fickas, Univ. of Oregon Georges Grosz, Univ. of Paris Neil Maiden, City University, London Klaus Pohl, Univ. of Aachen ********************************************************************* From: Sara Jones (S.Jones@herts.ac.uk) Subject: User-Centred Requirements Engineering CFP Call for Participation ====================== User-Centred Requirements Engineering: Integrating Methods from Software Engineering And Human-Computer Interaction Kings Manor, York, UK. Monday, 15th January 1996. Overview: Methods for requirements engineering which originate from the field of software engineering have often tended to neglect the requirements of system users regarding, for example, system usability and the design of the human-computer interface. Conversely, methods used in the field of human-computer interaction have often focussed on the techniques of user-centred design to the exclusion of other techniques from software engineering which identify requirements relating, for example, to safety, security, performance and commercial viability. In recent years, some commonality between the approaches used in different areas has, however, begun to emerge. In this meeting, we hope to identify an agenda for the future integration of complementary methods and techniques for requirements engineering, which draw on traditions in both software engineering and human-computer interaction. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: - experience of integrating methods for user-centred design with other approaches to requirements engineering; - methods and techniques for analysing the trade-offs between usability and engineering requirements; - comparison of task-oriented approaches to user-centred design with goal-oriented approaches to requirements specification; - means of reducing the conflicts that arise between different disciplines, for instance between sociology and systems engineering. Submissions: 3 copies of extended abstracts describing the proposed presentation should be sent in hard copy format to Chris Johnson at the address given below by October 31st. Submissions will be reviewed, and authors will be notified of acceptance by December 1st 1995. Papers presented at the meeting will appear in a special edition of the SIGCHI Bulletin journal. We also intend to publish a book containing selected papers presented at this meeting. Organisers: Chris Johnson, Sara Jones, Department of Computing Science, Division of Computer Science, University of Glasgow, University of Hertfordshire, Glasgow, G12 8QJ, Hatfield, AL10 9AB Scotland. UK E-mail: johnson@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk E-mail: s.jones@herts.ac.uk Phone: +44 141 339 8855 (ext 6053) Phone: +44 1707 284370 Fax: +44 141 330 4913 Fax: +44 1707 284303 This workshop is organised jointly by the British Human Computer Interaction Group and the Requirements Engineering Specialist Group of the British Computer Society. ********************************************************************* From: Ralf Doemges Subject: NATURE final workshop ================================================================ European Workshop on Novel Approaches to Theories Underlying Requirements Engineering ================================================================ Sitges, Spain September 25, 1995 (in connection with the ESEC 95 conference) Background: ----------- As the bridge between the business and the information technology perspective on information systems, requirements engineering is a field of growing importance. Over the past three years, the ESPRIT basic research programme has funded the NATURE project in order to address fundamental issues associated with the theory of knowledge representation and management, domain modeling and reuse, process guidance and traceability within requirements engineering. The workshop is intended to promote discussion of the main project results through presentations, software demonstrations, and a panel discussion. Participation/Registration: --------------------------- The workshop is held on the day prior to the European Software Engineering Conference in Sitges, Spain (see the WWW page http://www-fib.upc.es/Congressos/ESEC95/fulltext.txt for registration and accomodation information). The workshop is open for participants from industry as well as research with an interest in requirements engineering. For registered participants in ESEC 95, there is no extra registration fee. When you register for ESEC, please mention that you intend to participate in the workshop, and send a brief notification message to doemges@informatik.rwth-aachen.de. Technical Overview: ------------------- A general framework developed in NATURE for thinking about requirements engineering defines RE as a process of establishing a system vision in context. The RE process is viewed in the three dimensions of technical representation, depth of specification, and social agreement. Technical project contributions based on this framework include: - knowledge representation and reasoning mechanisms and tools which achieve representational freedoms through + different kind of representations ranging from informal hypertext to semi-formal graphics to formal conceptual models + meta-model based interaction between different perspectives, including reverse modeling and view integration of existing software, goal and business models + similarity analysis based on qualitative and quantitative models - models and tools for supporting the reuse of generic domain knowledge during requirements capture and requirements critiquing based on a set of domain models which have been both formally specified and empirically validated - architectures for RE environments which support model-guided and (almost) automatic requirements traceability along all three dimensions through a combination of process repositories and process-integrated tools - process guidance according to a flexible process modeling approach that interprets RE as a process of contextual decision-making and includes traditional plan-based workflows as well as automatable parts of the process as special cases. Programme - Monday, September 25: --------------------------------- 11:30 - 13:00 An Overview of the NATURE Framework (including a short prototype demonstration) M. Jarke, R. Doemges, RWTH Aachen, Germany 13:00 - 14:30 Lunch Break 14:30 - 15:00 Using Domain Knowledge for Validating Requirements Specifications A. Sutcliffe, N.Maiden, City University of London, UK 15:00 - 15:30 Analogical Support for Specification Reuse and Viewpoint Integration P. Constantopoulos, G. Spanoudakis, FORTH-ICS, Greece 15:30 - 16:00 Understanding the Usage Context of Information Systems P. Holm, B. Wangler, SISU Kista, Sweden 16:00 - 16:30 Coffee Break 16:30 - 17:00 Requirements Traceability and Requirements Information Management K. Pohl, RWTH Aachen, Germany 17:00 - 17:30 RE Process Modeling and Engineering: The NATURE Approach C. Rolland, G. Grosz, Universite Paris-Sorbonne, France 17:30 - 18:00 Panel Discussion: Current Trends in RE Research and Practice, Panel M. Francksson, SEMA group; P. Desruelles, CEC (moderators) ********************************************************************* Subject: Viewpoints in Requirements Engineering From: oczg@doc.ic.ac.uk (Orlena "Olly" Gotel) ****************************************************************** * * * M E E T I N G * * * * REQUIREMENTS ENGINEERING SPECIALIST GROUP OF THE BCS * * * * WEDNESDAY, 25TH OCTOBER 1995, 2:00-5:00PM * * * * TITLE: * * * * "VIEWPOINTS IN REQUIREMENTS ENGINEERING" * * * ****************************************************************** VENUE: Room C27 Dept of Mechanical, Manufacturing and Software Engineering Napier University Merchiston Campus 10 Colinton Road Edinburgh EH10 5DT (see travel details below) ADMISSION: Free to members of RESG and students; 5 pounds sterling to others. The meeting will include short panel presentations followed by questions and an open discussion. Refreshments will be served prior to the meeting. The panellists include: Ian Sommerville (Lancaster University). Geoff Mullery (Systemic Methods Ltd.). Mandy Haggith (Edinburgh University). Barry Keepence & Mike Mannion (Napier University). Chair: Bashar Nuseibeh (Imperial College). ------- ABSTRACTS: Process Viewpoints for RE Process Improvement. Ian Sommerville (Lancaster University). This talk is concerned with a method of understanding and improving the requirements engineering process for complex systems. Systems engineering projects are characterised by the involvement of many different engineering disciplines, customers, suppliers, sub-contractors, etc. A consequence of this is a protracted, expensive and sometimes chaotic requirements engineering phase. Each participant in the process may have a different notion of requirements engineering and developing a common model can be very difficult. We are currently extending the notion of viewpoints as a means of structuring the system requirements to the analysis and understanding of the requirements engineering process. This will accommodate the multiple perspectives on the process and provide a basis for discovering parts of the process which may be improved. The talk will describe the concept of process viewpoints, present a rationale for their use and briefly describe a method of applying viewpoints as part of a process improvement programme. ******* Architectural and Non-Technical Influences on Multi-Model Viewpoints. Geoff Mullery (Systemic Methods Ltd.). A Viewpoint is a restricted model of an environment. A collection of Viewpoints can be expected to show differences due to variations in factors such as needs, priorities, expertise and taste. The Viewpoint concept has broadened to some extent. Some advocate technical models - from procedural through to object oriented and from structured through to formal. Others advocate less computer-oriented models - such as sociological, political and soft systems. I argue that two main mistakes are now made. One is to assume that one approach should be used in preference to the others. The other is to ignore or treat as separate the actual elicitation, specification and development process - i.e. the project life cycle. Models are representations of a subset of reality. A model may usefully contribute aesthetic or technical views. It is only in computing that we seem obsessed with the idea that one type of model should be used. Computer projects are frequently performed by and for people who have never before participated in a successful application of computing to the particular environment of that type. A development project is itself a system and its components can be viewed as subsidiary developments. These are intersecting Viewpoints of a development process and they intersect with Viewpoints inherent in the requirement for the system being developed. There are contractual, management, environment, technological and resource views of a project as well as the technicians view. They each talk of the same system and will each talk about requirements, but each means something different by it. In all these cases, it is the differences between Viewpoints which can lead to problems and hence it is important to apply as many Viewpoints as is feasible with the aim of finding those differences. Ignoring the differences and pretending there is a pure path to producing a specification (a single model) is a recipe for continued failure. ******* `But I don't want that!': making the most of conflicting requirements. Mandy Haggith (Edinburgh University). Participative methodologies for computer system design require that all the relevant stakeholders in the system are involved in some way. It is likely that different stakeholders will have different world views and values which may lead to disagreement between the requirements of these stakeholders. One method of exploring disagreements is by articulating arguments for the various points of view. These arguments can be useful in helping to pin down problems, clarify areas of consensus and suggest revised solutions. My view is that conflicts should be seen as opportunities for discussion, and as indicators of important issues, not merely as problems to be resolved. The talk will include discussion of some techniques for representing, exploring and inciting disagreements. ******* Viewpoints and Requirements in Domain Analysis. Barry Keepence & Mike Mannion (Napier University). Domain Analysis is a technique which can be used to analyse a group of related systems. The domain model which is generated can be used for many purposes including identifying reusable software assets. Domain Models should describe WHAT a family of systems do rather than HOW they do it. For this reason Domain Analysis should be carried out at the requirements stage of system development. This talk will explain how Viewpoints and requirements are used to provide a common framework for performing Domain Analysis. A domain modelling tool will be presented. ------- TRAVEL DETAILS: Napier has 4 campuses. There are actually 2 on Colinton Road: Craiglockhart at No. 219, Merchiston at No 10. Merchiston is nearer the City Centre. The Merchiston campus is 25 min walk, 10 min drive from Princes Street. By car: Colinton Road is off A702 (Morningside Road) to the south-west of the city. The A702 interconnects with Edinburgh city-bypass which runs in a semi-circle around the city. By train: Edinburgh Waverley station is in the centre of the city, with an entrance/exit 50 yards from Princes Street. Taxis are readily available from the station concourse. Taxi fare will be about 5 pounds. Local contact: Dr Mike Mannion (mm26@csu.napier.ac.uk, tel: 0131-455-6120). ------- FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT: 1. The meeting, contact Bernice Bright (B.P.Bright@city.ac.uk, tel: 0171-477-8000 x4033) or Olly Gotel (oczg@doc.ic.ac.uk, tel: 01865 749200). 2. Membership of the RESG, contact Sara Jones (S.Jones@herts.ac.uk, fax: 01707-284303). ********************************************************************* From: Chris Johnson (johnson@dcs.gla.ac.uk) Subject: UK Research Positions 2 Research Assistant posts are now available working on a new EPSRC funded project, starting as soon as possible after 1st October 1995. The project is investigating means of supporting accident analysis. There are two posts available, one on the RA(1A) scale and the other on the RA(1B) scale. Candidates for the 1B post should ideally possess an honours degree in Computing or Psychology. They will be expected to register for a higher degree. Candidates for the 1A post should ideally possess a higher degree in the areas of formal methods or HCI. The candidates would join the Glasgow Interactive SysTems group (GIST). This multi-disciplinary team consists of people with expertise ranging from cognitive psychology to formal methods and graphics programming. The Dept. of Computing Science in Glasgow recently received the top UK grading in both teaching and research assessment exercises and is close to some really amazing biking, running, climbing and sailing areas. Brief descriptions of the project is appended, further information is available on: http://www.dcs.glasgow.ac.uk/~johnson/research or at the address below. The closing date for applications is September 15th. Letters of application should be sent together with a copy of a recent CV to: Dr Chris Johnson, Department of Computing Science, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ. Email: johnson@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk URL: http://www.dcs.glasgow.ac.uk/~johnson Tel: +44 141 339 8855 Ext 6053 Fax: +44 141 330 4913 ---------------------- Principles For The Use Of Formal Notations During Accident Investigations Accident reports are intended to ensure that the faults of previous systems are not propagated into future applications. They contain the analysis of many different experts: human factors specialists; control engineers; meteorologists etc. Unfortunately, the insights of these investigators are typically separated into chapters that reflect the concerns and expertise of their authors. This separation creates a number of problems. For instance, critical incidents in one analysis may not appear in other chapters. This makes it difficult to accurately trace the complex interactions that lead to major accidents. This can obscure the fundamental causes of an accident. This project will exploit formal descxription techniques to address the problems described above. A higher order logic will be used to represent the events leading to major accidents. Executable subsets of the formalism will then be used to animate the formal descriptions. The resulting simulations are intended to provide a focus for further analysis by the various groups involved in accident analyses. ---------------------- ********************************************************************* From: is@comp.lancs.ac.uk (Ian Sommerville) Subject: UK Academic Post LANCASTER UNIVERSITY COMPUTING DEPARTMENT LECTURESHIP IN SOFTWARE ENGINEERING Applications are invited for a Lectureship in Software Engineering in the Computing Department at Lancaster University. The successful applicant will join the Cooperative Systems Engineering Group whose main research interests are in the areas of requirements engineering, safety-critical systems, software evolution, fundamentals of CSCW, cooperative system frameworks, user-interfaces to database systems and cooperative visualisation, including VR-based systems. The successful candidate will be expected to assist with teaching on an undergraduate course in Computer Science with Software Engineering and in a new M.Sc in Distributed Interactive Systems which starts in 1996. Applicants must have a PhD in Computer Science or a closely-related subject and relevant research experience. The appointment will be made on the Lecturer A or Lecturer B scale, depending on the experience of the candidate and will be available from January 1996 or earlier. Applications from candidates with experience in requirements engineering are particularly welcome. For further information, please contact Professor Ian Sommerville by E-mail (is@comp.lancs.ac.uk). For information about the Cooperative Systems Engineering Group, our Web page is at URL: http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/research/cseg/ ********************************************************************* From: John Gundry Subject: Enterprise Modelling WWW Resource You may wish to look at our WWW pages describing the Enterprise Modelling capability, and METIS tool, from AT&T's Enterprise Design and Development Group. This capability is headquartered in the UK, and has been used in a variety of requirements engineering engagements. The URL is http://www.edd.co.uk/em/intro ********************************************************************* From: Edward V. Berard Newgroups: comp.object, comp.software-eng, comp.edu Subject: OOD and RA Teaching material available I am making available 190 slides that can be used in the teaching of object-oriented design. The slides are in the form of 10 pdf documents. (PDF is Adobe's portable document format. PDF readers are available FREE from Adobe.) A description of how these slides may be accessed by either the World Wide Web, or by FTP is contained at the end of this article. The 10 documents are: - An overview of the object-oriented requirements analysis process (5 slides) - A listing of the 7 steps in the OO Design process (4 slides) - First OOD Step: Create models and identify candidate objects (36 slides) - Second OOD Step: Identify operations of interest from the models (25 slides) - Third OOD Step: Select, create and verify objects (28 slides) - Fourth OOD Step: Decide on programming language implementations for the objects (25 slides) - Fifth OOD Step: Create graphical models of the software solution (15 slides) - Sixth OOD Step: Establish the interfaces for the software components (11 slides) - Seventh OOD Step: Implement the objects (8 slides) - Program Unit Graphics: These are the graphics used to create the graphical models of the software solution (33 slides) A more detailed explanation of this particular OOD process can be found in Chapter 13 of "Essays on Object-Oriented Software Engineering, Volume 1," by Edward V. Berard, published by Prentice Hall, copyright 1993, and ISBN 0-13-288895-5. Anyone may download one copy of these slides for their own personal use. Those wishing to make multiple copies of any or all of these slides should contact me for authorization. If you have access to the World Wide Web, surf to http://www.toa.com, and look under PDF Documents, which is under On-Line Documents. The OOD slides are currently the last PDF documents on the list. If you have access to FTP, you can FTP the documents from: ftp://ftp.toa.com/pub/Acrobat/OO_Design *********************************************************************