A UML Profile for Goal-Oriented Modeling

The Unified Modeling Language (UML) does not fully address the needs of some important modeling domains, including goals and non-functional requirements (NFR). However, UML can be extended and tailored through the definition of profiles. In this paper, we propose a UML profile for the Goal-oriented Requirement Language (GRL), the goal/NFR notation of the User Requirements Notation (URN), recently standardized by ITU-T as Recommendation Z.151. Our profile is based on the abstract metamodel of GRL defined in accordance with ITU-T Recommendation Z.111 (meta-metamodel). This GRL metamodel has already been successfully tested and implemented in the jUCMNav Eclipse plug-in (a URN modeling tool). The profiling approach used in this paper adheres to the guidelines for UML profile design defined in ITU-T Recommendation Z.119. The resulting profile has been implemented in a UML 2 tool, namely IBM Rational Tau 4.0, and validated with case studies. Our experience and lessons learned are also discussed.