Scenario-driven Development of Context-aware Adaptive Software Systems

Context-awareness and adaptability are highly desirable features for software systems that operate in dynamic environments. In recent years, a number of approaches have been proposed to support the development of such systems. However, elicitation of a context-aware adaptive system requirements and synthesis of the system model from its requirements are still major challenges. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to scenario-driven development of context-aware adaptive systems. Our approach enables the elicitation of the system requirements as a set of scenarios. In particular, we differentiate functional scenarios from adaptation scenarios. The functional scenarios capture the system’s functionality while taking the context information into account to operate effectively. The adaptation scenarios represent the system’s runtime adaptation to cope with the context changes. We also support synthesis of the system model from its scenarios. This model is then completed by the software engineer to add elements that are related to the system’s solution space and cannot be synthesised from the scenarios directly. We have developed a tool that enables the system’s implementations generation from their models. A case study of developing a context-aware travel guide system is also presented to demonstrate the viability of our approach.