Integrating Non-functional Requirement Modeling into Model Driven Development Method

Abstract

Model Driven Development views application development as a continuous transformation of models of the target system. However, non-functional requirements, which are important for building user-satisfied software systems and have impacts on the software design, are not sufficiently considered in current MDD methods. This paper proposes an approach to modeling non-functional requirements, analyzing their impacts to the design and making a complement to the original design models for the MDD methods. First, existing UML models of the application’s functional properties are taken as an input of the NFR modeling process, and with a NFR repository, the NFRs are refined and operationalized. Then based on the analysis result, modeling constructs are created to implement them, and the original UML models are reversely augmented by the result of NFR modeling. In particular, a metamodel is proposed to model the new constructs and facilitate the integration process. With this approach, we can finally get an integrated design model considering both functional requirements and non-functional requirements. The feasibility of the proposed approach is illustrated with an example of the design of a simplified credit card system.