Aspect Frames: Describing Cross-Cutting Concerns in Aspect-Oriented Requirements Engineering

Cross-cutting concerns often arise when non-functional requirements are operationalized, because non-functional requirements are themselves cross-cutting. In the field of aspect-oriented requirements engineering (AORE), functional requirements that cross-cut multiple other functional requirements are called aspects. An aspect describes in most cases a solution for a non-functional requirement and how this solution can be integrated into the realization of the functional requirements it cross-cuts. Examples for cross-cutting concerns are logging, encryption, and access control. We observed that aspects often share a basic structure, behavior, and the way of how they have to be integrated into the realization of the functional requirements they cross-cut. We propose in this paper aspect frames. An aspect frame is a kind of pattern for aspects that share a common concern, behavior, and way how they are integrated into the realization of the functional requirements they cross-cut. These aspect frames support requirements engineers to describe concrete aspects that fit to an aspect frame.