Task‐based conceptual graphs as a basis for automating software development

It is widely recognized that requirements engineering is a knowledge‐intensive process and cannot be dealt with using only a few general principles. Since knowledge plays a crucial role in software development, software engineers have to describe and organize various aspects of knowledge before the program can be written. A recent work by Robillard reveals that software development can be further improved by recognizing the relevant knowledge structures. In this paper, we propose the use of a task‐based conceptual graphs (TBCB) framework as a basis for automating software development. By structuring and operationalizing conceptual graphs, TBCG specifications can be transformed into executable programs automatically. To construct a conceptual model, task‐based specification methodology is used as the mechanism to structure the knowledge captured in conceptual models, whereas conceptual graphs are adopted as the formalism to express task‐based specifications and to provide a reasoning capability for the purpose of automation. Once task‐based graphs have been constructed and verified, a blackboard system will automatically transform TBCG specifications into a software system composed of database schemas, knowledge base, and user interfaces. A meeting scheduling system is used as an illustrative example to demonstrate our approach. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.