Analysis of Early Aspects in Requirements Goal Models: A Concept-Driven Approach - Transactions on Aspect-Oriented Software Development - page 55

Usability [C]
Responsiveness [C]
Security [C]
Accuracy [C]
Modifiability [C]
Accessibility [C]

Learnability

Usability

Performance

Confidentiality

Customer Security

Accuracy
Modifiability
Accessibility
Consistency
Adaptability

Usability [D]
Performance [D]
Confidentiality [D]
Security [D]
Correctness [D]
Maintainability [D]
Availability [D]
Consistency [D]
Adaptability [D]

Unifier

Developer

Fig. 10. An attempt to establish a unifier and vocabulary map for media shop

Figure 10 shows our initial attempt to build such a vocabulary map for the me-
dia shop example. This mapping is based on grid analysis of Fig. 9, and each
attempt to establish a unifier and vocabulary connector can be seen as a hypoth-
esis about how to put different viewpoints together, in which choices have to be
made about which concepts overlap, and how the terms used by various stake-
holders are related. If a particular set of choices yields an unacceptable result, it
is better to perform the concept merge, investigate the resulting inconsistencies,
and carry out the incremental analysis (Fig. 1), rather than restrict the available
mapping choices. Detailed processes of exploratory vocabulary reconciliation are
beyond the scope of this paper, and are considered as future work. We use Fig. 10
as the baseline mapping to facilitate discussion for the rest of the paper.

3.3 Discussion

We have presented a PCT- and RGT-based approach to systematic and effective
concept alignment, and have illustrated the method by identifying synonyms and
homonyms of candidate aspects in goal models. Our approach is lightweight in
that both elements and constructs are extracted from well-organized models
from goal-oriented RE [29], rather than being elicited from scratch. Currently,
focused grid extraction based on key activities is used as a heuristic to reduce
irrelevance between different views. Future work is planned for ensuring the
range of convenience of repertory grids offered by different stakeholders.
Softgoals in goal models are a good starting point for analyzing early aspects,
and candidate aspects can be seen as operationalizations of softgoals and the
relations to functional goals [54]. Our RGT-based concept alignment approach
is also applicable to the analysis of crosscutting functional requirements. In [25],
dichotomized repertory grids are constructed as an impact analysis tool to reveal
crosscutting properties of goal model entities. It is thus advantageous to align