SEON: Networked Ontology Specification

Requirements Development Process Ontology (RDPO)

1. Ontology Description

The Requirements Development Process Ontology (RDPO) aims at representing the activities, artifacts and stakeholders involved in the Requirement Development Process. Since RDPO describes the first technical process in software development, it defines some of the base elements to be reused by other SEON networked ontologies.

2. Related Ontologies

Networked ontologies used by RDPO:

3. Ontology Models

Figure 1 presents the conceptual model of the RDPO.

Figure 1. RDPO conceptual model.

Requirements Development Process is a Performed Process with the purpose of conducting the establishment and development of requirements, from the elicitation to the agreement. It is composed of five Performed Activities: (1) The Requirements Elicitation activity identifies a set of Functional and Non-Functional Requirements and documents them as Documented Requirements. This activity counts on the participation of the Requirements Stakeholders and can collect information from other sources (not presented in the model). (2) Conceptual Modeling uses the Documented Requirements for developing Conceptual Models (e.g. a class diagram), providing relevant views of the problem. (3) Requirements Documentation creates the Requirements Document, which is composed of Documented Requirements and describes the Conceptual Models and possibly other related information. (4) Requirements Verification and Validation evaluates requirements and models documented in the Requirements Document, producing the Requirements Evaluation Document. (5) Finally, Requirements Agreement is obtained from the authorized Requirements Stakeholders in the Requirements Negotiation and Prioritization activity.
Considering Stakeholders, the Requirements Engineer is in charge of all activities of the Requirements Development Process, except for Requirements Verification and Validation where he/she participates in, but the responsibility is of the Requirements Reviewer. The Requirements Stakeholder participates only in Requirements Elicitation and, then, in Requirements Verification and Validation and Requirements Negotiation and Prioritization.
The Requirements Development Process can be applied for dealing with different levels of Documented Requirements. For example, it can deal with more general requirements such as higher level Customer Requirements, typically identified in software development preliminary stages, or with a more detailed level such as Product Requirements, defined in more advanced stages.

4. Concepts Definition

The following table shows the definitions for RDPO concepts.

Concept	Definition
Conceptual Model	Model describing the Product Requirements under different and relevant views. Ex.: a class diagram.
Conceptual Modeling	Composite Performed Activity executed for modeling requirements, producing Conceptual Models that provide a more comprehensive view of the problem.
Requirements Agreement	Information Item representing the agreement achieved by the Stakeholders, regarding the Requirements for the product. Ex.: the agreement on the requirements than can be contained in an e-mail or in a document section.
Requirements Development Process	Specific Performed Process for establishing and developing the requirements for a system or software.
Requirements Documentation	Composite Performed Activity executed for recording Documented Requirements and related Conceptual Models in Requirements Documents, assuring proper recording and management of them during and after the project.
Requirements Elicitation	Composite Performed Activity executed for identifying requirements from the Stakeholders and other sources, and documenting them.
Requirements Evaluation Document	Document pointing out problems identified in Documented Requirements and Conceptual Models registered in a Requirements Document.
Requirements Negotiation and Prioritization	Composite Performed Activity executed to solve problems in the requirements and to reach an agreement on the set of requirements to be considered in the Project and their priorities.
Requirements Reviewer	Stakeholder responsible for conducting reviews in requirements artifacts. Ex.: the person in charge of the Requirements Verification and Validation activity.
Requirements Verification and Validation	Composite Performed Activity executed for evaluating Documented Requirements and Conceptual Models registered in Requirements Documents, and for recording the identified problems.

Detailed Concepts