Aspect-oriented requirements engineering with problem frames

Nowadays, the requirements of various stakeholders for a system do not only increase the complexity of the system-to-be, but also contain different cross-cutting concerns. In such a situation, requirements engineers are really challenged to master the complexity and to deliver a coherent and complete description of the system-to-be. Hence, they are in need for methods which reduce the complexity, handle functional and quality requirements, check completeness and reveal interactions, and are tool supported to lower the effort. One possible option to handle the complexity of a system-to-be is the separation of concerns. Both, aspect-oriented requirements engineering and the problem frames approach implement this principle. Therefore, we propose a combination of both, the AORE4PF (Aspect-Oriented Requirements Engineering for Problem Frames) method. AORE4PF provides guidance for classifying requirements, separating the different concerns, modeling requirements for documentation and application of completeness and interaction analyses, and weaving the reusable parts to a complete and coherent system. AORE4PF provides tool support for most activities. We exemplify our method using a smart grid case obtained from the NESSoS project. For validation, the results of a small experiment in the field of crisis management systems are presented.