The use of a requirements modeling language for industrial applications

During model-driven requirements elicitation sessions for several commercial products, weaknesses were identified with available modeling languages such as UML and SysML. Continued frustration when attempting to use the UML for requirements capture eventually resulted in collaboration between Siemens and Technische Universität München (TUM) to define a new visual requirements language called the Unified Requirements Modeling Language (URML). This paper describes some of the rationale behind the development of the URML, highlights some of the more unusual features of the language, and, finally, describes its use on a commercial project.