A core ontology for requirements

In their seminal paper ACM T. Softw. Eng. Methodol., 61 1997, 1--30, Zave and Jackson established a core ontology for Requirements Engineering RE and used it to formulate the “requirements problem”, thereby defining what it means to successfully complete RE. Starting from the premise that the stakeholders of the system-to-be communicate to the software engineer the information needed to perform RE, Zave and Jackson's ontology is shown to be incomplete, in that it does not cover all classes of basic concerns --namely, the beliefs, desires, intentions, and evaluations --that the stakeholders communicate. In response, we provide a new core ontology for requirements that covers these classes of basic stakeholder concerns. The proposed new core ontology leads to a new formulation of the requirements problem. We thereby establish a new framework for the information that needs to be elicited over the course of RE and new criteria for determining whether an RE problem has been successfully addressed.

[1]  H. Simon,et al.  A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice , 1955 .

[2]  Anthony Hunter,et al.  A logic-based theory of deductive arguments , 2001, Artif. Intell..

[3]  David Gries,et al.  On Structured Programming , 1978 .

[4]  A. Parasuraman,et al.  SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. , 1988 .

[5]  F. H. Eemeren,et al.  A Systematic Theory of Argumentation: The pragma-dialectical approach , 2003 .

[6]  Pierre-Yves Schobbens,et al.  A More Expressive Softgoal Conceptualization for Quality Requirements Analysis , 2006, ER.

[7]  Axel van Lamsweerde,et al.  Goal-Oriented Requirements Engineering: A Guided Tour , 2001, RE.

[8]  Standard Glossary of Software Engineering Terminology , 1990 .

[9]  W. Deming.  Quality, productivity, and competitive position , 1982 .

[10]  Ana Gabriela Maguitman,et al.  Logical models of argument , 2000, CSUR.

[11]  Pamela Zave.  Classification of research efforts in requirements engineering , 1997, ACM Comput. Surv..

[12]  Carol Reeves,et al.  DEFINING QUALITY: ALTERNATIVES AND IMPLICATIONS , 1994 .

[13]  Ilana Ritov,et al.  Economic Preferences or Attitude Expressions?: An Analysis of Dollar Responses to Public Issues , 1999 .

[14]  John L. Pollock,et al.  Defeasible Reasoning , 2020, Synthese Library.

[15]  Douglas T. Ross,et al.  Structured Analysis for Requirements Definition , 1977, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.

[16]  Nicola Guarino,et al.  WonderWeb Deliverable D18 Ontology Library , 2003 .

[17]  Christopher J. Fox,et al.  The quality approach: is it delivering? , 1997, CACM.

[18]  Christopher K. Hsee,et al.  The Evaluability Hypothesis: An Explanation for Preference Reversals between Joint and Separate Evaluations of Alternatives , 1996 .

[19]  A Straw,et al.  Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge , 1998 .

[20]  Stefano Borgo,et al.  Artefacts in Formal Ontology , 2009 .

[21]  David Hitchcock,et al.  The concept of argument , and informal logic , 2005 .

[22]  John Mylopoulos,et al.  Formal Reasoning Techniques for Goal Models , 2003, J. Data Semant..

[23]  Shari Lawrence Pfleeger,et al.  Software Quality: The Elusive Target , 1996, IEEE Softw..

[24]  Thomas R. Gruber,et al.  Toward principles for the design of ontologies used for knowledge sharing? , 1995, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[25]  Alain Wegmann,et al.  Where do goals come from: the underlying principles of goal-oriented requirements engineering , 2005, 13th IEEE International Conference on Requirements Engineering (RE'05).

[26]  John Mylopoulos,et al.  Towards requirements-driven information systems engineering: the Tropos project , 2002, Inf. Syst..

[27]  Routledge,et al.  Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy , 1998 .

[28]  John Mylopoulos,et al.  Representing and Using Nonfunctional Requirements: A Process-Oriented Approach , 1992, IEEE Trans. Software Eng..

[29]  Mark C. Paulk,et al.  The Capability Maturity Model: Guidelines for Improving the Software Process , 1994 .

[30]  Amartya Sen,et al.  INTERNAL CONSISTENCY OF CHOICE , 1993 .

[31]  Heinrich Herre,et al.  Semantic foundations of medical information systems based on top-level ontologies , 2006, Knowl. Based Syst..

[32]  A. Lawrence,et al.  The somatic marker hypothesis: A critical evaluation , 2006, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.

[33]  Daniel Oberle.  Semantic Management of Middleware (Semantic Web and Beyond: Computing for Human Experience) , 2006 .

[34]  Erik Stenius,et al.  Mood and language-game , 1967, Synthese.

[35]  T.C. Lethbridge,et al.  Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) and the Software Engineering Education Knowledge (SEEK) - a preliminary mapping , 2001, 10th International Workshop on Software Technology and Engineering Practice.

[36]  Emmanuel Letier.  Reasoning about Agents in Goal-Oriented Requirements Engineering , 2002 .

[37]  Anand S. Rao,et al.  Modeling Rational Agents within a BDI-Architecture , 1997, KR.

[38]  Valarie A. Zeithaml,et al.  Understanding and Improving Service Quality: A Literature Review and Research Agenda , 2002 .

[39]  Edsger W. Dijkstra,et al.  Notes on structured programming , 1970 .

[40]  C. Peirce,et al.  Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce , 1936, Nature.

[41]  Otto Jespersen,et al.  The Philosophy of Grammar , 1924 .

[42]  J. Elster.  Emotions and Economic Theory , 1998 .

[43]  Michael Jackson,et al.  Four dark corners of requirements engineering , 1997, TSEM.

[44]  John Mylopoulos,et al.  Incorporating Goal Analysis in Database Design: A Case Study from Biological Data Management , 2006, 14th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE'06).

[45]  Jakob Nielsen,et al.  E-Commerce User Experience , 2001 .

[46]  Michael R. Genesereth,et al.  Logical foundations of artificial intelligence , 1987 .

[47]  Ludwig-Maximilians.  Deskewing the Searlean Picture A New Speech Act Ontology for Linguistics , 2006 .

[48]  Luc Schneider,et al.  Designing Foundational Ontologies: The Object-Centered High-Level Reference Ontology OCHRE as a Case Study , 2003, ER.

[49]  Michael Uschold,et al.  Ontologies: principles, methods and applications , 1996, The Knowledge Engineering Review.

[50]  A. Sen,et al.  Behaviour and the concept of preference , 1971 .

[51]  A. Martin,et al.  Halle a. S. , 1913 .

[52]  Alain Abran,et al.  The Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge , 1999, IEEE Softw..

[53]  Nilson Arrais.  Quality control handbook , 1966 .

[55]  John Mylopoulos,et al.  Revisiting the Core Ontology and Problem in Requirements Engineering , 2008, 2008 16th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference.

[56]  A. Koller,et al.  Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language , 1969 .

[57]  Annie I. Antón,et al.  Goal-based requirements analysis , 1996, Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Requirements Engineering.

[58]  R. Oliver.  Effect of expectation and disconfirmation on postexposure product evaluations: An alternative interpretation. , 1977 .

[59]  A. Damasio.  Descarte's error : emotion, reason, and the human brain , 1994 .

[60]  Axel van Lamsweerde,et al.  Formal refinement patterns for goal-driven requirements elaboration , 1996, SIGSOFT '96.

[61]  C. A. R. Hoare,et al.  Proof of correctness of data representations , 1972, Acta Informatica.

[62]  Eric S. K. Yu,et al.  Towards modelling and reasoning support for early-phase requirements engineering , 1997, Proceedings of ISRE '97: 3rd IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering.

[63]  R. Ferrario,et al.  Towards a Computational Ontology of Mind , 2005, 2005 IEEE Aerospace Conference.

[64]  John Mylopoulos,et al.  An Ontology for Requirements , 2007, ER Workshops.

[65]  A. Damasio,et al.  Somatic markers and the guidance of behavior: Theory and preliminary testing. , 1991 .

[66]  David I. Laibson,et al.  Neuroeconomics : How Neuroscience Can Inform Economics , 2003 .

[67]  Andrew D. Spear.  Ontology for the Twenty First Century: An Introduction with Recommendations , 2006 .

[68]  S. B. Kiselev,et al.  The capability maturity model: guidelines for improving the software process , 1995 .

[69]  Sergei Nirenburg,et al.  Mood and modality: out of theory and into the fray , 2004, Nat. Lang. Eng..

[70]  Keith A. Coleman,et al.  On the Propositional Attitudes , 1991 .

[71]  Csr Young,et al.  How to Do Things With Words , 2009 .

[72]  Paolo Donzelli,et al.  A goal-driven and agent-based requirements engineering framework* , 2004, Requirements Engineering.

[73]  J. Searle.  Expression and Meaning: A taxonomy of illocutionary acts , 1975 .

[74]  Barry W. Boehm,et al.  Quantitative evaluation of software quality , 1976, ICSE '76.

[75]  Pierfrancesco Bellini,et al.  Temporal logics for real-time system specification , 2000, CSUR.

[76]  Joseph A. Goguen,et al.  Techniques for requirements elicitation , 1993, [1993] Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering.

[77]  Barry W. Boehm,et al.  Using the WinWin Spiral Model: A Case Study , 1998, Computer.

[78]  Hector J. Levesque,et al.  Intention is Choice with Commitment , 1990, Artif. Intell..

[79]  J. Searle.  The Background of Meaning , 1980 .

[80]  J. Bennett.  A Philosophical Guide to Conditionals , 2003 .

[81]  Guillermo Ricardo Simari,et al.  A Mathematical Treatment of Defeasible Reasoning and its Implementation , 1992, Artif. Intell..

[82]  Adam Pease,et al.  Towards a standard upper ontology , 2001, FOIS.

[83]  H. Raiffa,et al.  Decisions with Multiple Objectives , 1993 .

[84]  Martin Glinz,et al.  On Non-Functional Requirements , 2007, 15th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE 2007).

[85]  Lionel Robbins,et al.  Economics and Political Economy , 1997 .

[86]  Daniel Oberle,et al.  Semantic management of middleware , 2006, DSM '04.

[87]  Stephen Fickas,et al.  Goal-Directed Requirements Acquisition , 1993, Sci. Comput. Program..

[88]  Ian Sommerville,et al.  Requirements Engineering: Processes and Techniques , 1998 .

[89]  Julio Cesar Sampaio do Prado Leite,et al.  On Non-Functional Requirements in Software Engineering , 2009, Conceptual Modeling: Foundations and Applications.

[90]  R. Dromey,et al.  A Model for Software Product Quality , 1995, IEEE Trans. Software Eng..

[91]  Axel van Lamsweerde,et al.  Reasoning about partial goal satisfaction for requirements and design engineering , 2004, SIGSOFT '04/FSE-12.

[92]  Niklaus Wirth,et al.  Program development by stepwise refinement , 1971, CACM.

[93]  Gottlob Frege,et al.  Begriffsschrift, eine der arithmetischen nachgebildete Formelsprache des reinen Denkens , 1879 .

[94]  L. Wittgenstein.  Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus , 2021, Nordic Wittgenstein Review.

[95]  Ramanathan V. Guha,et al.  Cyc: toward programs with common sense , 1990, CACM.

[96]  Anupriya Ankolekar,et al.  DOLCE ergo SUMO: On foundational and domain models in the SmartWeb Integrated Ontology (SWIntO) , 2007, J. Web Semant..