Formalizing the Transition from Requirements to Design

Despite the advances in software engineering since 1968, current methods for going from a set of functional requirements to a design are not as direct, formal, repeat-able and constructive as we would like. Progress with this fundamental problem is possible once we recognize that individual functional requirements represent fragments of behavior, while a design that satisfies a set of functional requirements represents integrated behavior. This perspective admits the prospect of constructing a design out of its requirements. A formal representation for individual functional requirements, called behavior trees makes this possible. Behavior trees of individual functional requirements may be composed, one at a time, to create an integrated design behavior tree. From this problem domain representation it is then possible to transition directly, systematically, and repeatably to a solution domain representation of the component architecture of the system and the behavior designs of the individual components that make up the system: both are emergent properties of the integrated design behavior tree.