Mise en Scene: Converting Scenarios to CSP Traces in Support of Requirements-Based Programming

Abstract

The "Requirements to Design to Code" (R2D2C) project of NASA's Software Engineering Laboratory is based on inferring a formal specification, currently using Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP), from system requirements supplied in the form of scenarios, a user-friendly medium often used to describe the behavior of computer systems under development. The scenarios are first converted into an intermediate form, CSP traces, from which are derived CSP specifications. This work, called Mise en Scene, defines a new scenario medium (Scenario Notation Language, SNL) suitable for control-dominated systems, coupled with a two-stage process for automatic translation of scenarios to a new trace medium (Trace Notation Language, TNL) which encompasses CSP traces. A survey of the "scenario" concept and a small case study are also presented.