Requirements validation through viewpoint resolution

A specific technique-viewpoint resolution-is proposed as a means of providing early validation of the requirements for a complex system, and some initial empirical evidence of the effectiveness of a semi-automated implementation of the technique is provided. The technique is based on the fact that software requirements can and should be elicited from different viewpoints, and that examination of the differences resulting from them can be used as a way of assisting in the early validation of requirements. A language for expressing views from different viewpoints and a set of analogy heuristics for performing a syntactically oriented analysis of views are proposed. This analysis of views is capable of differentiating between missing information and conflicting information, thus providing support for viewpoint resolution