The Two Functionalities of the Sarel System

The specification phase is one of the most important and least supported part of the software development process. We have conceived SAREL (Assistance System for Writing Software Specification in Natural Language) as a knowledge-based tool to improve the specification phase. The purpose of SAREL is to assist engineers in the creation of software specifications written in natural language. The functionality of the system is twofold: vertical processing and horizontal processing. In vertical processing the input is a software specification written in natural language and the output is the conceptual representation associated. In this case the system validates every requirement taking into account the writing norms and the quality properties. The conceptual representation can be used to check the software quality factors. Working in horizontal processing the input is two different conceptual representations and the output is the information about the correspondence between them.