Thinging Machines for Requirements Engineering: Superseding Flowchart-Based Modeling

TL;DR

This paper introduces thinging machines (TMs) as an innovative diagrammatic modeling approach for requirements engineering, replacing traditional flowchart-based methods to improve clarity, integration, and system understanding.

Contribution

It proposes a novel TM modeling methodology that unifies various system specifications and enhances requirements elicitation over traditional flowchart techniques.

Findings

TM models improve clarity and integration of requirements

Case studies demonstrate TM's effectiveness over flowcharts

TM approach addresses ambiguity in natural language requirements

Abstract

This paper directs attention to conceptual modeling approaches that integrate advancements and innovations in requirements engineering. In some current (2024) works, it is claimed that present elicitation of requirements models focus on collecting information using natural language, which yields ambiguous specifications. It is proposed that a solution to this problem involves using complexity theory, transdisciplinarity, multidimensionality and knowledge management. Examples are used to demonstrate how such an approach helps solve the problem of quality and reliability in requirements engineering. The modeling method includes flowchart-like diagrams that show the relationships among system components and values in various modes of operation as well as path graphs that represent the system behavior. This paper focuses on the diagrammatic techniques in such approaches, with special attention directed to flowcharting (e.g., UML activity diagrams, business process model and notation (BPMN) business process diagrams). We claim that diagramming methods based on flowcharts is an outdated technique, and we promote an alternative diagrammatic modeling methodology based on thinging machines (TMs). TMs involve a high-level diagrammatic representation of a real-world system that integrates various component specifications to be refined into a more concrete executable form. TM modeling is a valuable tool to integrate requirements elicitation and address present challenges comprehensively. To demonstrate that, case studies are re-modeled using TMs. A TM model involves static, dynamic diagrams and event chronology charts. This study contrasts the flowchart-based and the TM approaches. The results point to the benefits of adopting the TM diagramming method.