Requirements Problem and Solution Concepts for Adaptive Systems Engineering, and their Relationship to Mathematical Optimisation, Decision Analysis, and Expected Utility Theory

TL;DR

This paper defines the Requirements Problem for Adaptive Systems (RPAS), highlighting its differences from traditional requirements problems, and discusses its formalization and implications for future research in requirements engineering.

Contribution

It introduces a formal definition of RPAS, distinguishes it from standard requirements problems, and explores its implications for adaptive system design and research.

Findings

RPAS is fundamentally different from traditional requirements problems.

A formal definition of RPAS is provided.

Implications for future research in adaptive systems are discussed.

Abstract

Requirements Engineering (RE) focuses on eliciting, modelling, and analyzing the requirements and environment of a system-to-be in order to design its specification. The design of the specification, usually called the Requirements Problem (RP), is a complex problem solving task, as it involves, for each new system-to-be, the discovery and exploration of, and decision making in, new and ill-defined problem and solution spaces. The default RP in RE is to design a specification of the system-to-be which (i) is consistent with given requirements and conditions of its environment, and (ii) together with environment conditions satisfies requirements. This paper (i) shows that the Requirements Problem for Adaptive Systems (RPAS) is different from, and is not a subclass of the default RP, (ii) gives a formal definition of RPAS, and (iii) discusses implications for future research.