From early requirements to user interface prototyping: a methodological approach

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to define a software production process which represents the correspondence between the primitive elements of a business model (represented in the framework i*) and the user interface of the software system. The representation of the user interface is compliant with the Unified Model Language (UML). We use a use case model as an intermediary between the business requirements and the application software. By doing this, we go a step further in the process of properly embedding early requirements engineering into the software production process, because organizational users can validate their requirements as early as possible. This is done through the validation of the user interfaces which are generated as a software representation of these requirements. These interfaces can also be reused for further refinement as a useful starting point in the software development process.