Semantic Parameterization: A Process for Modeling Domain Descriptions
ACM Transactions on Software Engineering Methodology, (2009)Abstract
Software engineers must systematically account for the broad scope of non-functional requirements that describe the coordinated actions of stakeholders and software systems. Engineers can use the Inquiry Cycle Model (ICM) to acquire these requirements by having domain experts answer six questions: who, what, where, when, how and why. Goal-based requirements engineering has led to the formalization of requirements to answer the ICM questions about "when," "how" and " why" goals are achieved, maintained or avoided. We present a systematic process for expressing natural language domain descriptions of goals as specifications in Description Logic. Goal formalization in Description Logic allows engineers to automate inquiries using "who," "what" and "where" questions, completing the formalization of the ICM questions. The contributions of this approach include new theory to conceptually compare and disambiguate goal specifications that enables querying goals and organizing goals into specialization hierarchies. The process artifacts include a dictionary that aligns the domain lexicon with unique concepts, distinguishing between synonyms and polysemes, and natural language patterns that aid engineers in mapping domain descriptions to formal specifications. Semantic Parameterization has been empirically validated in three case studies on policy and regulatory descriptions that govern information systems in the finance and health-care domains.