An Executable Activity Theory Based Framework for Early Requirements Analysis

Gathering requirements in a domain problem is a challenging task for which several agent-oriented solutions have been devised. The high-level abstraction of agent concepts and their associated semantics eases this elicitation. Nevertheless, this does not ensure that the specification reflects what the customer demands. A frequent validation technique consists in building a prototype so that the customer can appreciate the result of the conversations with the analysts. The creation of such system requires time and money, and thus the industry would appreciate means of reducing these costs. This paper addresses this problem trying to prevent unnecessary developments. The proposal consists in capturing requirements with a framework based on the analysis of human societies named SCAT. This framework is generic enough to be domain independent and uses concepts similar to those in Agent-Oriented Software Engineering. Specifications captured with SCAT are described at low cost, since only general principles are required, and get the extra advantages of being both executable and verifiable. Besides, the resulting instantiation of the framework can be translated later onto a specific methodology if the required transformation rules are developed.