Requirements Monitoring in Dynamic Environments

idealized requirements, alternative goal decompositions (sometimes) correspond to viable alternative designs, where selection has been made on the basis of assumptions. In these cases, we provide a different kind of payback to the designer: in return for that designer explicitly recording the idealized requirements, their subdivisions and underlying assumptions, we may generate run-time monitors, which serve to make the resulting system more robust in the face of environmental change. Alternative designs that are recorded become guides for future system modifications needed to work under new environments. In conclusion, we believe a focus upon requirements of systems that operate in dynamic environments suggests the need for monitoring as a means to guide the appropriate evolution of those systems. Current practice leaves a gap between the support provided to system administrators, and the challenges they face in maintaining their systems in dynamic, evolving environments. Our approach is intended to help bridge that gap.