An interface compositional framework for data flow-oriented analysis and design

Efforts have been expanded to formulate guidelines for application of analysis and design principles, draw on the many successes in specifying large-scale projects, and provide many "cures" to the commonly encountered problems. Educators and professionals have recognized viewpoint-based analysis as a powerful means to support the requirements analysis process. This paper reports on an initiative to draw closer viewpoint analysis and data flow based methods. This has been a topic of significant interest to us in that a viewpoint approach is by far superior than its data flow counterpart to requirements discovery and gathering for medium or large size student projects. This paper describes a framework in an attempt to: (1) bridge the gap between viewpoint-based requirements analysis and the computational aspects of data flow oriented models; and (2) provide a systematic approach for effective structuring and managing complexity in the system under consideration. These goals have been achieved by introducing a more generalized notion of viewpoints, called interfaces, and their compositions. The adequacy of the framework and its implementation are presented.