Applying requirement monitoring for autonomic computing in a combat management system

Diagnosis of large and complex software systems is a challenging task that can highly benefit from monitoring of the high-level functional requirements. This work studies the potential of applying requirements monitoring for a software system of high complexity: the combat management system (CMS) of a modern and technologically advanced naval platform. An effort is made to apply the requirements monitoring method for autonomizing of this system while limiting implementation impact. The KAOS goal-oriented requirements engineering method is used to extract software system goals from previously documented requirements. With these high-level objectives as a starting point, the ReqMon requirements monitoring framework is applied. An implementation model is defined, identifying what data transformations are needed to apply the ReqMon system. Tests with a requirements monitoring prototype demonstrate that detailed diagnosis of a complex software system as a CMS is feasible and furthermore that comprehensive manual fault analysis can be replaced by an automated process: the first step towards a self-healing autonomic combat management system is taken.