No matter whether a heavy-weight approach like RUP is employed or an agile one - requirements have to be collected and organized somehow. It is desirable to maintain the requirements and to establish a traceability between the requirements and the development artifacts. Such a traceability has many uses, including to support project management, testing or change management, to name just a few. In practice, it is difficult to find the right balance for requirements management: If requirements are not updated, their usefulness is severely limited. Likewise, an incomplete or incorrect traceability can be worse than having none at all. The cost of a correctly maintained traceability can in some circumstances out-weight their value. In this talk, we present the Eclipse Requirements Modeling Framework (RMF) and its GUI, ProR. RMF supports a generic data model that is based on the emerging ReqIF standard. ReqIF is an OMG standard that was developed by the automotive industry to aid the exchange of requirements between manufacturers and suppliers. ProR is the first clean-room implementation of a ReqIF tool. We expect most industry tools to support ReqIF by the end of 2012 (many tools, including Rational DOORS, already support the predecessor of ReqIF). Support for the project was pledged by Airbus, Thales, MKS and many others (see http://eclipse.org/rmf). As ProR is generic, it can be used with a wide range of development processes. But the real power stems from the ability to extend it with plugins to provide additional functionality. In this talk, we will also present a method for building a formal model of requirements. The method supports the iterative addition of requirements to the model, while evolving the requirements. We demonstrate how ProR (with the integration plugin) support tasks like link creation, change management and requirements evolution. As an Eclipse project, RMF can easily be integrated into existing tools. There is a lot of interest in the Topcased community, for instance, to integrate ProR for better requirements engineering support. Further, we are evaluating traceability support for SysML, implemented in Topcased. This talk addresses everybody who manages requirements and who deals with the software development process. Besides requirements engineers, this includes product managers, project managers and software architects. As systems being developed are getting more and more complex, the importance of an effective development process and an integrated tool chain are becoming increasingly important. RMF makes an open contribution in an area that so far has been under-represented in the Eclipse ecosystem.

1. Tracing Requirements
with the Eclipse Requirements Modeling Framework
Michael Jastram
Formal Mind GmbH / University of Düsseldorf
J11.2

2. AGENDA
> Requirements & Tools Today
> Requirements Modeling Framework (RMF)
> Demo of ProR (GUI)
> Traceability
> Demo of Rodin Integration (Modeling)
> Outlook
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3. Is RMF for you?
If …
… you consider requirements important
… you do Eclipse-based systems engineering
… Word, Excel, Wiki just doesn't cut it for requirements
… you are looking for an open, extensible requirements tool
… then RMF may be what you were looking for
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4. Michael Jastram
> Cofounder Formal Mind GmbH
Science for Systems Engineering
> Completing PhD program (University of Düsseldorf)
Focus on Requirements / Formal Models
> Project Lead / Cofounder
Eclipse Requirements Modeling Framework
> Chairman / Founder
rheinjug (Java User Group Düsseldorf)
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5. Requirements
Requirements and Requirements Tools Today

6. Why Requirements?
Image: dilbert.com 6

7. What are Requirements?
> “A condition or capability needed by a
user to solve a problem or achieve an
objective (...)”
(IEEE)
> Requirements answer: What?
> Specification answers: How?
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8. A Few Approaches and Tooling
Light
Heavy
V-Modell XT RUP/OpenUP Scrum & Co Ad Hoc
Specialized Text and Web-based Anything
Tool chains UML
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net 9

9. Requirements in different Fields
> Requirements for Software (Web, Desktop, etc.)
– Small number
– Complement Models
> Requirements for Embedded Systems
– Large Number
– Part of Contracts
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net 10

10. Features of Requirements Tools
> Like:
– DOORS
– Integrity
– IRQA
> Features
– Requirements Text + Attributes
– Various Attribute Types
(Rich Text, Enumerations, OLE, etc.)
– Hierarchical Document Structure
– Traceability between Requirements
– Versioning / Baselining
> Analysis
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net 11

11. RMF
The Eclipse Requirements Modeling Framework

12. RMF Overview
> Framework for working with textual requirements
> Based on ReqIF (Requirements Interchange Format)
> Components: GUI ( ) and Core
> Extensible (Eclipse plug-ins / EMF)
> Roots in academia
> Designed for industry
Image: ddpavumba / FreeDigitalPhotos.net 13

13. RMF History
> Initial Development ProR (Focus on GUI)
April 2010 – June 2010
> Verde/itemis Collaboration (ReqIF Core)
July 2010 – February 2011
> Eclipse Foundation Submission (RMF)
March 2011 – November 2011
> Preperation for first Eclipse Integration Build
December 2011 – January 2012
> Following the Roadmap
February 2012 – present
Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net 14

14. Image: dream designs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
RMF Architecture
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15. ReqIF Top Level
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Taken from OMG ReqIF 1.0.1 Specifcation
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

16. ReqIF Content
Taken from OMG ReqIF 1.0.1 Specifcation 17
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

17. ReqIF: Three Layers
> ReqIF Meta-Meta-Model
– Unchangeable (OMG Standard)
– Used by Developer
> Information Meta-Model:
– Structures for Capturing Requirements
– Used by Requirements Engineer
> Requirements Model:
– The Actual Requirements
– Used by Stakeholders
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18. Demo 1
Of the ProR Tool (GUI of RMF)

19. Traceability
Connecting the dots within and beyond the requirements description

20. Why Traceability?
> For reasoning (SysML: containment, derive, satisfy, verify, refine)
> For change management
> For project management
> For test management
> … and many more uses
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Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

21. Traceability: End or Means?
> Traceability is not self-serving!
> Outdated/missing/incorrect traceability can be
worse than none!
> Effective traceability needs integration
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Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

22. An Academic Example
> Approach developed as part of research
> Traceability between requirements and formal specification
> Goal: Achieve consistency between requirements and (partly formal)
specification
> Principle applies to other processes
and integrations
Hallerstede, Jastram, Ladenberger:
“A Method and Tool for Tracing Requirements into Specifications”,
Science of Computer Programming (Submitted), 2012
http://www.stups.uni-duesseldorf.de/w/Special:Publication/HalJasLad2012
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Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

23. Event-B
> Formalism / Method for discrete System
Modeling
> State-based
> Support of invariants
> Proof Obligations for consistency of
invariants
> Targeted at the embedded market
> Tools support via Rodin Platform
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24. Demo 2
Of the Integration of ProR (Requirements) and Rodin (Event-B Models)

25. The Future
> RMF 0.3.0 got released on June 16th
> Tool interoperability via ProSTEP implementor forum
> Integration with Topcased planned (UML/SysML)
> Protoypical Xtext Integration exists
> Academic and commercial use being expanded
> We eat our dogfood!
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net 28

26. What's in for You?
> Completes Eclipse tool chain for
Systems Engineering
> “Better than Word, cheaper than Doors”
> Ready to be used
> Interoperability thanks to ReqIF
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net 29

27. Thank you!
Questions, Comments, and Constructive Criticism Welcome!
Requirements Modeling Framework
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28. Michael Jastram http://formalmind.com
Formal Mind GmbH michael@jastram.de