From Requirements to Design: Model-driven Transformation or Mapping?

Abstract. In a case-based approach to software reuse, a requirements model may be used for indexing and retrieving other models and ideally all relevant software artifacts. In this context, the exact relationship between a requirements and a design model is of interest. We investigate this relationship in terms of model-driven approaches and discuss more precisely the question whether the transition from requirements to software design can be a model-based transformation or just a mapping. We show that it cannot be a model-driven transformation in the sense of such transformations from higher- to lower-level design models.