Engineering Large-Scale Software-Intensive Systems

Summary form only given. There are four major threats to successfully building large-scale software-intensive systems: (1) a failure to control the complexity that arises during the development process (2) a failure to achieve early resolution of deficiencies in informal statements/knowledge of stakeholders´ needs (3) failure to construct a system that satisfies stakeholders´ needs, and (4) a failure to effectively organize the project team. All four of these threats can be very significantly reduced by making maximum and effective use of the requirements information that expresses stakeholders´ needs. This is achieved by choosing a representation that supports rigorous formalization and composition of individual requirements one at a time into an integrated, state-based, graphical view. It amounts to building a system ´out of´ its requirements. The justification for, the processes, representations and results of applying this constructive approach to tackling the core problems associated with developing large-scale, dependable systems is presented.