Finding incremental solutions for evolving requirements

This paper investigates aspects of the problem of software evolution resulting from top-level requirements change. In particular, while most research on design for software focuses on finding some correct solution, this ignores that such a solution is often only correct in a particular, and often short-lived, context. Using a logic-based goal-oriented requirements modeling language, the paper poses the problem of finding desirable solutions as the requirements change. Among other possible criteria of desirability, we consider minimizing the effort required to implement the new solution, which involves reusing parts of the old solution. In general, the solution of requirements problems is viewed as an exploration using a “requirements engineering knowledge base” (REKB), whose specification is formalized. The paper reports on experience implementing the REKB on top of a so-called “reason-maintenance system”, and provides evidence that incremental solution finding is indeed more efficient.