Modeling Imprecise Requirements with Fuzzy Objects

One of the foci of the recent development in object-oriented modeling (OOM) has been the extension of OOM to fuzzy logic to capture and analyze informal requirements that are imprecise in nature. In this paper, a new approach to object-oriented modeling based on fuzzy logic is proposed to formulate imprecise requirements along four dimensions: (1) to extend a class by grouping objects with similar properties into a fuzzy class, (2) to encapsulate fuzzy rules in a fuzzy class to describe the relationship between attributes, (3) to evaluate the membership function of a fuzzy class by considering both static and dynamic properties, and (4) to model uncertain fuzzy associations between classes. The proposed approach is illustrated using the problem domain of a meeting scheduler system. Ó 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.