A metamodel for tracing requirements of real-time systems

Modeling and tracing requirements are difficult, error-prone activities which have great impact on the overall software development process. Most techniques for modeling requirements present a number of problems and limitations, including modeling requirements at a single level of abstraction, and being specific to model functional requirements. In addition, non-functional requirements are frequently overlooked. Without the proper modeling of requirements, the activity of tracing requirements is impaired. This article aims to perform a study on modeling requirements of Real-Time Systems through an extension of the SysML Requirements Diagram focusing on the traceability of non-functional and functional requirements. The SysML metamodel is extended with new stereotypes and relationships, and the proposed metamodel is applied to a set of requirements for the specification of a Road Traffic Control System. The proposed approach has demonstrated to be effective for representing software requirements of real-time systems at multiple levels of abstraction and classification. The proposed metamodel represents concisely the traceability of requirements at a high level of abstraction.