Specification for Visual Requirements of Work-Centered Software Systems

by Knapp, James Robert

Work-centered software systems function as inherent work-aiding systems. Based on the design concept for a work-centered support system (WCSS), these software systems support user tasks and goals through both direct and indirect aiding methods within the interface client. In order to ensure the coherent development and delivery of work-centered software products, WCSS visual interface requirements must be specified in order to capture the cognitive and work-aiding aspects of the user interface design. Without the ability to specify such original requirements, the probability of creating an accurate and effective work-centered software system is significantly reduced. A new visual requirements specification language based on the User Interface Markup Language (UIML) is proposed as an effective solution to bridging this gap between cognitive systems engineering and software engineering. In this paper, a new visual requirements specification language that can capture and describe work-centered visual requirements within a semi-formal syntax is introduced and explained. The proposed language is also shown to be easily integrated into a UML object model via the use of UML's extensibility features. Such a specification language for visual requirements could be employed by cognitive engineers and design teams to help convey requirements in a comprehensible format that is suitable for a software engineer. This solution provides coherency in the software modeling process of developing work-centered software systems and contributes towards the specification of unique visual software requirements.