6.3.4 Threads, Reference Cases, and System Models: Adapting OOA to Complex System Specification

Behavioral system models are often necessary to specify top-level system dynamic characteristics, especially for complex systems. Representing system stimulus/response behavior is often problematic, however. The scenario used to stimulate the system model may be overly simplistic, and won't be validated operational experts. On the other hand, operational experts will often develop a very broad set of system scenarios so detailed that they obfuscate the key system characteristics. This paper discusses a technique for aggregating operational system scenarios into a meaningful essential set of “reference cases”, which then serve as the functional baseline for system development and design verification.