Software Prototyping and Requirements Engineering

DACS The Data & Analysis Center for Software (DACS) is a Department of Defense (DoD) Information Analysis Center (IAC), administratively managed by the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) under the DoD IAC Program. The DACS is technically managed by Rome Laboratory (RL). Itt Systems & Sciences Corporation manages and operates the DACS, serving as a source for current, readily available data and information concerning software engineering and software technology. Executive Summary The field of software engineering has yet to achieve the productivity and quality gains that have been seen in the hardware counterpart field. Prototyping in more traditional engineering disciplines is the common approach for demonstrating feasibility of the functionality of a system early in the life cycle. Prototyping is also useful for risk assessment and as a means for validation of end user requirements. Software engineers began to formally recognize the benefits of prototyping software systems in the early 1980's. A decade of experience and research gives the opportunity for an assessment of the area. Similarly, software requirements and specification techniques provide a basis for establishing early in the software life cycle the functionality of a system. The benefits of establishing a "standard" against which the end user needs are validated can have a significant impact on minimizing problems. These problems arise downstream in the life cycle when there is not a clear understanding of what is needed. In addition, the "standard" serves as a means in which a design can be validated. Executable requirements and specification techniques allow for the dynamic demonstration of functionality of a software system. Requirements engineering has a similar decade of experience and research. One area of particular interest to the software engineering community is in coupling prototyping and requirements engineering. This report includes the motivation for using software prototyping in general and specifically in the context of requirements engineering. An overview of software prototyping covers life cycle models, approaches, pitfalls, and opportunities. The section on software requirements and specification establishes a basis for investigating techniques. The summary analyses of software requirements and specification techniques and tools for prototyping address twenty techniques across a variety of language models. Each technique summary analysis was developed to include the history, technique overview, method, supporting tools, language features, and strengths/weaknesses. The description of needed detailed analyses includes a summary of common aspects among the techniques to be developed in a repository. Software technology transfer is addressed in …