Evolution in Domain Model-Based Requirements Engineering for Control Systems Development

When developing software-based control systems, knowledge and experiences in the relevant domain are of great importance. Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are most active here need to capture requirements under severe time and costs pressures. In previous work we have shown that a domain model based on the requirements formalism i* accelerates the requirements capture. Furthermore, the domain model-based similarity search supports the detection of reusable components from earlier projects. But due to the innovativeness, flexibility, and customer-orientation of control systems development, this domain model is subject to continuous change. Within this paper, we investigate the effects of model evolution on our domain model-based requirements engineering approach. Building on examples from industrial practice, we develop a classification of possible domain model modifications. For each such class, we analyze its impact on the similarity search and derive appropriate counter measures to limit these harmful impacts.