Extending requirement specifications using analogy

Abstract

Creating the specifications for a new system is a labour intensive task. Analogical reasoning provides a flexible mechanism to retrieve and adapt past specifications. Previous work in applying analogical reasoning to requirement specifications has departed from the psychological foundations of analogical reasoning, introducing specific ontologies and abstract templates to constrain the reasoning process. We argue that similar results can be obtained without introducing domain specific constraints and that using analogical reasoning engines based on well-established psychological theories, such as the Structure-Mapping Engine, will lead to better results and scale up more effectively.