From goal models to three-layer web-based systems: An exploratory study

Goal models have been found by the requirements engineering community to be an effective way to represent, communicate and analyze stakeholder requirements. Once they reach some degree of completeness, these models are then used for developing the system-to-be so that the latter meets the stakeholder goals that are described in the model. A question that naturally arises in this process, though, is whether and how the way by which requirements are structured in goal models influences the structure of the design of the system to be built, especially when no goal model specific methodological or platform restrictions have been assumed. In this paper, we focus on web-based systems and describe our experiences in developing a small, layered web application using a goal model as a primary requirements representation tool and without introducing any non-conventional methodological, design or platform restrictions. We studied the artifacts of this process in an effort to identify patterns and draw hypotheses. Our so far results suggest interesting characterizations of goals and source code that could be useful in further exploring the relationship between the two and offer some promising directions for further work.