Expressing the relationships between multiple views in requirements specification

The authors generalize and formalize the definition of a ViewPoint to facilitate its manipulation for composite system development. A ViewPoint is defined to be a loosely-coupled, locally managed object encapsulating representation knowledge, development process knowledge and partial specification knowledge about a system and its domain. In attempting to integrate multiple requirements specification ViewPoints, overlaps must be identified and expressed, complementary participants made to interact and cooperate, and contradictions resolved. The notion of inter-ViewPoint communication is addressed as a vehicle for ViewPoint integration. The communication model presented straddles both the method construction stage during which inter-ViewPoint relationships are expressed, and the method application stage during which these relationships are enacted