A knowledge base approach to the specification of non-functional real-time system requirements
type: CreativeWork
description: During the late seventies it became necessary to partition the system development life-cycle into layers of conceptualisation and abstraction to provide enhanced information hiding and thus a smoother transition from specification to implementation. The existence of system requirements analysis as a specific initial phase of system development requiring tailor-made methods and tools became apparent. Requirements specifications comprise two distinct forms: functional and nonfunctional. There was a prolific growth in the number of requirement specification methods during the eighties resulting from the need to overcome the inadequacies in specifications developed during the seventies. Current methods encourage the elicitation of the functional system requirement but exhibit a lack of formality and exhaustiveness when dealing with non-functionality. Representation is usually provided in the form of structured text in data dictionaries with minimal guidance in elicitation. While them is a considerable body of knowledge on these non-functional requirements, the application of this knowledge is patchy and except in a few cases has not been developed into definitions or procedures. Furthermore, while methods recognise the existence of non-functional requirements there is little detail of how to maintain traceability of these constraints into the implementation. System requirements specification tools were developed during the eighties to support existing methods. Many such tools are automated aids to the extent that they provide basic consistency checking and implement the laws which form the basis of the method they support. Few can be viewed as "intelligent" (i.e. possess a knowledge base and reasoning mechanism). Of those prototype tools which adopt a knowledge-based approach, application scope is limited to the specification of information systems on an academic rather than an industrial scale. Few involve the specification of non-functionality. This thesis involves th…
abstract: During the late seventies it became necessary to partition the system development life-cycle into layers of conceptualisation and abstraction to provide enhanced information hiding and thus a smoother transition from specification to implementation. The existence of system requirements analysis as a specific initial phase of system development requiring tailor-made methods and tools became apparent. Requirements specifications comprise two distinct forms: functional and nonfunctional. There was a prolific growth in the number of requirement specification methods during the eighties resulting from the need to overcome the inadequacies in specifications developed during the seventies. Current methods encourage the elicitation of the functional system requirement but exhibit a lack of formality and exhaustiveness when dealing with non-functionality. Representation is usually provided in the form of structured text in data dictionaries with minimal guidance in elicitation. While them is a considerable body of knowledge on these non-functional requirements, the application of this knowledge is patchy and except in a few cases has not been developed into definitions or procedures. Furthermore, while methods recognise the existence of non-functional requirements there is little detail of how to maintain traceability of these constraints into the implementation. System requirements specification tools were developed during the eighties to support existing methods. Many such tools are automated aids to the extent that they provide basic consistency checking and implement the laws which form the basis of the method they support. Few can be viewed as "intelligent" (i.e. possess a knowledge base and reasoning mechanism). Of those prototype tools which adopt a knowledge-based approach, application scope is limited to the specification of information systems on an academic rather than an industrial scale. Few involve the specification of non-functionality. This thesis involves th…
author: Birch, Martin John
language: en
keywords: F500 - Astronomy
date published: 1992-10
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:35:53Z
provider: University of Central Lancashire
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Central Lancashire