A 3D visualization approach to validate requirements

The importance of correctly determining the requirements of a system at the very beginning of the development process it is a well known fact. Experience shows that the incorrect definition of the requirements leads to the development of deficient systems, increases the cost of its development or even causes projects to fail. Therefore it is crucial for the clients to verify that the planned system satisfies their needs. In this context, visualization techniques appear as a useful tool to help the users in the process of requirements understanding and validation. This paper describes an approach to validate system requirements with the user using 3D visualization techniques. The use of these techniques could reduce the communication gap between the clients and the developers resulting in a much more effective process of requirements validation. The approach tries to take advantage of the benefits of 3D visualization, complementing this with the advantages of formal specifications. As well as a research prototype tool, called ReqViZ3D, that materializes the proposal was developed. The merits of applying ReqViZ3D for the validation of requirements are illustrated using several case studies.Eje: VisiónRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Early Requirements Validation with 3D Worlds

It is a well-known fact the real significance of correctly determining requirements of a system at the very beginning of the development process. Indeed, experience demonstrates that the incorrect definition of requirements leads to development of deficient systems, increases the cost of its development or even causes projects to fail. Thus, it is crucial for clients to verify that the planned system satisfies their needs. In order to help users in the process of requirements understanding and validation this work proposes using 3D visualization techniques. The use of these techniques can reduce the communication gap between clients and developers resulting in a much more effective process of requirements validation. The approach tries to take advantage of the benefits of the 3D visualization, complementing this with the advantages of formal specifications. The approach proposes the use of formal specifications in a lighter way. This means that no formal reasoning (theorem proving) is carried out to check the properties of the specified system and the emphasis is focused on the execution and animation of the specification for early validation. A prototype tool that materializes the proposal was developed. The tool allows specifying the requirements in the formal language Z, defining a graphical representation of them and creating a 3D animated visualization of their execution through which the users can validate them.Fil: Teyseyre, Alfredo Raul. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil. Instituto Superior de Ingeniería del Software. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Instituto Superior de Ingeniería del Software; ArgentinaFil: Campo, Marcelo Ricardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil. Instituto Superior de Ingeniería del Software. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Instituto Superior de Ingeniería del Software; Argentin

A 3D visualization approach to validate requirements

The importance of correctly determining the requirements of a system at the very beginning of the development process it is a well known fact. Experience shows that the incorrect definition of the requirements leads to the development of deficient systems, increases the cost of its development or even causes projects to fail. Therefore it is crucial for the clients to verify that the planned system satisfies their needs. In this context, visualization techniques appear as a useful tool to help the users in the process of requirements understanding and validation. This paper describes an approach to validate system requirements with the user using 3D visualization techniques. The use of these techniques could reduce the communication gap between the clients and the developers resulting in a much more effective process of requirements validation. The approach tries to take advantage of the benefits of 3D visualization, complementing this with the advantages of formal specifications. As well as a research prototype tool, called ReqViZ3D, that materializes the proposal was developed. The merits of applying ReqViZ3D for the validation of requirements are illustrated using several case studies.Eje: VisiónRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

3D requirements visualization

The importance of correctly determining the requirements of a system at the very beginning of the development process it is a well known fact. Experience shows that the incorrect definition of the requirements leads to the development of deficient systems, increases the cost of its development or even causes projects to fail. Therefore it is crucial for the clients to verify that the planned system satisfies their needs. This means that the system must be described in a form that clients can clearly understand it. In this context, visualization techniques appear as a useful tool to help the users in the process of requirements understanding and validation. This work proposes the use of 3D visualization techniques to validate the requirements of a system with the user. The use of these techniques can reduce the communication gap between the clients and the developers resulting in a much more effective process of requirements validation. The approach tries to take advantage of the benefits of the 3D visualization, complementing this with the advantages of formal specifications. A tool, called ReqViz3D, that materializes the proposal was developed. This tool allows to specify the requirements in the formal language Z, define a graphical representation of them, and create a 3D animated visualization of theirs execution through which the users can validate them.Facultad de Informátic

Rapid prototyping of software specifications in Z.

by Wu Chun Pong.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-[91]).Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1Chapter 1.1 --- Formal Specification Methods --- p.1Chapter 1.2 --- The Z notation --- p.2Chapter 1.3 --- Overview of Thesis --- p.3Chapter 2 --- The Specification Language Z --- p.5Chapter 2.1 --- Background --- p.5Chapter 2.2 --- Structure and Characteristics --- p.6Chapter 2.3 --- Object Orientation in Z --- p.10Chapter 2.3.1 --- Hall's style --- p.11Chapter 2.3.2 --- Schuman and Pitt's variant --- p.11Chapter 2.3.3 --- Object-Z --- p.12Chapter 2.4 --- Execution in Z --- p.13Chapter 2.5 --- Animation of Z Specifications --- p.15Chapter 2.5.1 --- Prolog --- p.15Chapter 2.5.2 --- Translation Z into Prolog --- p.18Chapter 2.5.3 --- Related Works --- p.19Chapter 3 --- Incorporating Real Numbers in Z --- p.22Chapter 3.1 --- Dedekind Cut --- p.23Chapter 3.2 --- Cantor's definition --- p.23Chapter 3.3 --- Practical approach --- p.24Chapter 4 --- Constraint Logic Programming and CLP(R) --- p.26Chapter 4.1 --- Constraint Logic Programming --- p.26Chapter 4.2 --- CLP(R) --- p.27Chapter 4.3 --- Example of CLP(R) --- p.29Chapter 5 --- The ZCLP(R) Animation System --- p.31Chapter 5.1 --- Design Philosophy --- p.31Chapter 5.2 --- Implementation Strategy --- p.34Chapter 5.3 --- Z editor (ZEDIT) --- p.36Chapter 5.4 --- Prolog Library for set operation (ZCLIB) --- p.37Chapter 5.4.1 --- Basic needs for the Library --- p.37Chapter 5.4.2 --- Rules for the library --- p.38Chapter 5.4.3 --- Limitation of the Library --- p.43Chapter 5.5 --- Z to CLP(R) Translator (ZCGEN) --- p.44Chapter 5.5.1 --- Procedure for translation --- p.45Chapter 5.5.2 --- Demonstration --- p.47Chapter 5.5.3 --- Rules for translation --- p.48Chapter 5.5.4 --- Limitations of the Translator --- p.50Chapter 5.6 --- Z to LATEX translator (ZLATEX) --- p.52Chapter 6 --- Examples --- p.54Chapter 6.1 --- A Simple Banking System --- p.54Chapter 6.1.1 --- Bags --- p.54Chapter 6.1.2 --- Specifications --- p.56Chapter 6.2 --- A Graphics Example --- p.61Chapter 6.2.1 --- Defining a Rectangle --- p.62Chapter 6.2.2 --- Drawing a Rectangle --- p.63Chapter 6.2.3 --- Defining a Circle --- p.63Chapter 6.2.4 --- Specifications --- p.64Chapter 6.3 --- Specifications Writing Experience --- p.76Chapter 7 --- Conclusion --- p.79Chapter 7.1 --- Contributions --- p.79Chapter 7.2 --- Difficulties --- p.83Chapter 7.3 --- Further Works --- p.84Bibliography --- p.8

The automatic assessment of Z specifications

The need to automate the process of assessing a specification in a learning environment is identified to be one of the fundamental ways to improve the use of formal notation in specifying a real system. General issues involved in building an automatic marking system for computer-based courses are explored. Techniques that have been proposed for assessing a specification are also discussed. By considering the issues and the techniques, we describe how they can be used to build a system that is able to give a quality grade to a specification that is written in the Z language. In the system, four quality factors are taken into consideration; maintainability of a specification (which considers the typographic arrangement of a specification and the specification complexity), and correctness of a specification (which reflects the static correctness and the dynamic correctness of a specification). By using suitable quality metrics for specification maintainability, the results that are produced are compared to some values which can either be absolute values or relative to the model answer. The marks awarded for this factor are based on this comparison. Static correctness is carried out by applying a syntax and type checker. The marks granted for this factor depend on the outcome of the checker. Dynamic correctness is determined by employing a testing technique. In the context of a specification, the behaviour of a system-state, which is represented by so-called state variables, is analysed. The specification is 'executed' by using animation. The marks are given according to the correctness of the output and the final state. The system is implemented within the well-known courseware management system, Ceilidh. There are fundamental differences between Z specifications, and the subject matter of other courses taught using the Ceilidh system (which are mostly computer programming courses). For this reason we take some time in this thesis to explain (in some detail) the incorporation of the system within Ceilidh. The need for the fundamental components (i.e the editor, the syntax and type checker, the animator and the automatic marker) are discussed and described. The system has been used by a group of 13 students who attended a Z course within the School of Computer Science and Information Technology at the University of Nottingham during the 1997-1998 academic year. The students were given a questionnaire about the system. An analysis of these questionnaires shows that the currently implemented tools are beneficial and helpful to the students. We also test the results of the system and compare them with a small selected group of human markers. The testing reveals very encouraging results and shows that the system can mark student scripts with a good degree of accuracy. We conclude that this system can provide a very useful aid for teachers of the Z Specification language