A systematic review of domain analysis tools

The domain analysis process is used to identify and document common and variable characteristics of systems in a specific domain. In order to achieve an effective result, it is necessary to collect, organize and analyze several sources of information about different applications in this domain. Consequently, this process involves distinct phases and activities and also needs to identify which artifacts, arising from these activities, have to be traceable and consistent. In this context, performing a domain analysis process without tool support increases the risks of failure, but the used tool should support the complete process and not just a part of it. This article presents a systematic review of domain analysis tools that aims at finding out how the available tools offer support to the process. As a result, the review identified that these tools are usually focused on supporting only one process and there are still gaps in the complete process support. Furthermore, the results can provide insights for new research in the domain engineering area for investigating and defining new tools, and the study also aids in the identification of companies’ needs for a domain analysis tool.