Aspect-oriented user requirements notation: Aspects in goal and scenario models

Abstract

Technologies based on aspects and applied at the early stages of software development allow requirements engineers to better encapsulate crosscutting concerns in requirements models. The Aspect-oriented User Requirements Notation (AoURN) extends the User Requirements Notation (URN) with aspects and thus unifies goal-oriented, scenario-based, and aspect-oriented concepts in one framework. Minimal changes to URN ensure that requirements engineers can continue working with goal and scenario models expressed in a familiar notation. At the same time, concerns in goal and scenario models, regardless of whether these concerns crosscut or not, can be managed across model types. Typical concerns in URN are non-functional requirements (NFRs), use cases, and stakeholder goals. As AoURN expresses concern composition rules with URN itself, it is possible to describe rules in a highly flexible way that is not restricted by any specific composition language. Aspects can improve the modularity, reusability, scalability, and maintainability of URN models. Considering the strong overlap between NFRs and crosscutting concerns, aspects can help bridge the gap between goals and scenarios. On the other hand, Early Aspects (EA) research can benefit from a standardized way of modeling concerns with AoURN. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.