A preliminary study on requirements modeling methods for self-adaptive software systems

Abstract

Internetware denotes a kind of complex distributed software system, which executes in an open, uncertain and dynamic environment, and adapts itself to changes in the environment. An important problem related to the development of Internetware applications is how to define their requirements. Traditional requirements modeling methods work well with software applications deployed in predictable environment, but cannot deal with Internetware applications, which have to identify and adapt themselves to the unpredictable situations of their environment. The self-adaptation characteristic of Internetware applications introduces challenges to the effective modeling of the requirements of Internetware applications. In this paper, we carry out a preliminary study on requirements modeling methods for self-adaptive software systems. In particular, we focus on how existing requirements modeling methods address the challenges caused by self-adaptation and what are the advantages and disadvantages of their solutions. By doing this study, we aim to identify the essential capabilities or properties that a requirements modeling method should possess so as to support the requirements modeling of self-adaptive software systems like Internetware.