Requirements Analysis in Tropos: A Self-Referencing Example

Tropos, a novel agent-oriented software engineering methodology, is heavily characterized, among other features, by the fact that it pays great attention to the activities that precede the specification of the prescriptive requirements, such as understanding how the intended system would meet the organizational goals. This is obtained by means of the two requirement phases: the early requirements analysis and the late requirements analysis. Moreover, Tropos uses, along these phases, a uniform notation and an homogeneous, smooth, incremental, and iterative process, based on a set of progressive transformational steps. This paper will take into account the application of the Tropos methodology to a self-motivating case study: the definition of a support tool for the Tropos methodology itself. The focus here is on the early requirements and on how to manage the transition from them to the late requirement analysis.