Visualizing Aspect-Oriented Requirements Scenarios with Use Case Maps

The benefits of aspects and aspect-oriented modelling are beginning to be recognized for requirements engineering activities. However, once aspects have been identified, the behaviour, structure, and pointcut expressions of aspects need to be modeled unobtrusively at the requirements level, allowing the engineer to seamlessly focus either on the behaviour and structure of the system without aspects or on the combined behaviour and structure. Furthermore, the modeling techniques for aspects should be the same as for the base system, ensuring that the engineer continues to work with familiar models. This position paper describes how, with the help of Use Case Maps, scenario- based aspects can be modeled visually and unobtrusively at the requirements level and with the same techniques as for non-aspectual systems. With Use Case Maps, aspects including pointcut expressions are modeled in a visual way which is generally considered the preferred choice for models of a high level of abstraction.