SEON: Networked Ontology Specification

Goal-Oriented Requirements Ontology (GORO)

1. Ontology Description

The Goal-Oriented Requirements Ontology (GORO) intends to represent the nature of the main concepts and relations surrounding Goal-Oriented Requeriments Engineering (GORE) approaches.

2. Related Ontologies

Networked ontologies used by GORO:

3. Ontology Models

Figure 1 presents the conceptual model of the GORO.

Figure 1. GORO conceptual model.

In GORE, the domain characterization (and further identification of requirements and so on) is obtained initially by modeling the agents' goals. Agents bear intentional properties such as Beliefs and Intentions. These intentional properties are called Mental Moments. A Goal is a propositional content of an Intention. An Intention represents not only a will but also an internal commitment of the Agent to act towards the Goal, implying in a Plan to accomplish it. In that way, a Goal as an Intention should be associated with a Plan. Thus, Goals with associated Plans to accomplish them (Tasks) are propositional contents of Intentions.

In a Software Engineering process, a requirement does not refer necessarily to software. Hence, a Requirement is a Goal, in the scope of a specific problem, that describes environmental conditions to be achieved through a desired solution resulting in satisfaction of the underlying strategic goals.

Hardgoals are defined as propositions that are objectively satisfied by a given set of situations. In constrast, Softgoals refer to a vague quality region whose exact boundaries are unknown.

4. Concepts Definition

The following table shows the definitions for GORO concepts.

Concept	Definition
Atomic Task	An Atomic Task is a Task that is not decomposed in other tasks.
Complex Task	A Complex Task is a Task that is composed in other tasks.
Hardgoal	Hardgoal is a proposition that is objectively satisfied by a given set of situations.
Requirement	A Goal in the scope of a specific problem, that describes environmental conditions to be achieved through a desired solution resulting in satisfaction of the underlying strategic goals. In GORE, these goals can be refined by decomposing them into sub-goals, as well as by defining them by means of alternative goals.
Softgoal	Softgoal is an initial and temporary vague expression of a goal not suficiently defined yet. It refers to a vague quality region whose exact boundaries are unknown. Thus it is not possible to determine a priori the set of situations that satisfies the softgoal. Its satisfiability is usually related to an agent's judgement.
Task	A Task is a plan to achieve a goal.

Detailed Concepts