Linking requirements specification with interaction design and implementation

One challenging goal in the context of Software Engineering (SE) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is to provide appropriate bridges between the most well-known software production methods and techniques. SE is supposed to be strong in specifying functional requirements, while HCI is centred on defining user interaction at the appropriate level of abstraction. In any case, general-perspective software production methods that combine most functional-oriented, conventional requirements specification with the most interaction-oriented, user interface modelling are strongly required. In this paper, we present a specific approach in this context, intended to properly combine a sound functional requirements specification with an abstract model of the user interface represented by a CTT model. When the functional specification is enriched with such an interaction model, it is easier to derive the final software implementation that will represent both the structure and behaviour of the system and the user interaction. The presented approach has been successfully implemented in a MDA-based approach called Oliva Nova Model Execution, demonstrating that Conceptual Modeling-based strategies are more powerful when user interaction and system behaviour are modelled within a unified view.