An Approach to Constructing Functional Requirement Statements for System Architectural Design.

Abstract

The objective of this study is to develop a systematic approach to the architectural design of complex software systems. In this report, the problem of creating functional requirements, which become the input to the design structuring methodology, is investigated. Presently available requirement statement languages, such as PSL (Problem Statement Language) are examined, and the conclusion is drawn that such schemes are not very appropriate for the expression of requirements prior to system design. Certain key concepts used frequently in the requirements analysis and specification literature are then examined and clarified, and related together in the context of a simple framework. An alternative approach to specifying requirements, based upon a set of requirement templates, is proposed and its application illustrated. Finally, the appendices contain detailed information regarding PSL syntax and semantics, as well as an application of the template approach to the requirements for a real-life database management system.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1978
Accession Number
ADA057802

Entities

People

  • S. E. Madnick
  • S. L. Huff

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Application Software
  • Computer Program Documentation
  • Computer Programming
  • Computers
  • Database Management Systems
  • Databases
  • Decision Support Systems
  • Formal Languages
  • Identification
  • Information Processing
  • Information Systems
  • Language
  • Life Cycles
  • Management Information Systems
  • Monitoring
  • Software Development
  • Systems Engineering

Fields of Study

  • Computer science
  • Engineering

Readers

  • Computational Linguistics
  • Software Engineering.
  • Systems Analysis and Design