Dealing with softgoals at runtime: A fuzzy logic approach

One of the first frameworks to deal with NonFunctional Requirements, or softgoals, is the NFR Framework. This framework allows - among other contributions - softgoals analysis by applying propagation rules. This analysis is commonly performed during design activities. Instead of working with softgoals at design time, the proposal described in this paper combines propagation rules, fuzzy logic and Multi-Agent Systems in order to provide support for dealing with softgoals at runtime. Observing, for example, how the Requirements Engineering community deals with softgoals analysis by using propagation rules, we developed a propagation simulator centered on a specific algorithm. This simulator tries to replicate the requirements engineers´ practices when using propagation rules to make decisions at design time. Based on this propagation simulator, we propose an intentional-MAS-driven reasoning engine capable of analyzing softgoals at runtime by selecting an adequate strategy (i.e. an adequate plan) that will be performed by the intentional agent to achieve the desired goal.