Scenario-based Analysis of Non-Functional Requirements

Scenarios have been advocated as an effective means of acquiring and validating requirements as they capture examples and real world experiences that users can understand [Potts et al. 1994]. Although scenarios have appeared in many diverse forms [Carroll 1995], most authors have used them for behavioural analysis, e.g. scenario scripts [Potts et al. 1994] and use case scenarios [Jacobson et al. 1992, Graham 1996, Cockburn 1995]. More wider ranging views of scenarios as context settings for understanding socio-technical systems have been proposed by Eason et al. [Eason et al. 1996] and Kyng [Kyng 1995], but these too focus on user activity and system functionality, rather than system qualities also generally referred to as nonfunctional requirements. This paper explores the role scenarios could play in addressing non-functional requirements and proposes a method for scenario generation and analysis for the purpose.