Natural Language Requirements to Executable Models of Software Components

Abstract

The UniFrame approach to component-based software development assumes that concrete components are developed from a meta-model, called the Unified Meta- component Model, according to standardized business domain models. Implicit in this development is that there is a Platform Independent Model (PIM) which is transformed into a Platform Specific Model (PSM) under the principles of Model-Driven Architecture. This paper advocates natural language as the starting point for developing the business domain models and the meta-model and shows how this natural language may be mapped through the PIM to PSM using a formal system of rules expressed in Two-Level Grammar. This allows software requirements to be progressed from business logic to implementation of components and provides sufficient automation that components may be modified at the model level, or even the natural language requirements level, as opposed to the code level.