A Kind of Representation of Common Knowledge and its Application in Requirements Analysis

TL;DR

This paper models requirements analysis in software engineering using the concept of 'common knowledge' and demonstrates that shared understanding among participants is crucial for project success.

Contribution

It introduces a formal model of requirements analysis based on common knowledge, providing theoretical insights into the prerequisites for successful software projects.

Findings

Full knowledge of requirements among participants is essential for success.

Understanding the meaning of others' knowledge is critical for project success.

Union of participants' basic facts can fully cover requirements.

Abstract

Since the birth of software engineering, it always are recognized as one pure engineering subject, therefore, the foundational scientific problems are not paid much attention. This paper proposes that Requirements Analysis, the kernel process of software engineering, can be modeled based on the concept of "common knowledge". Such a model would make us understand the nature of this process. This paper utilizes the formal language as the tool to characterize the "common knowledge"-based Requirements Analysis model, and theoretically proves that : 1) the precondition of success of software projects regardless of cost would be that the participants in a software project have fully known the requirement specification, if the participants do not understand the meaning of the other participants; 2) the precondition of success of software projects regardless of cost would be that the union set of knowledge of basic facts of the participants in a software project can fully cover the requirement specification, if the participants can always understand the meaning of the other participants. These two theorems may have potential meanings to propose new software engineering methodology.