Requirements as First-Class Citizens: Integrating Requirements closely with Implementation Artifacts

Abstract. Requirements often play second fiddle in software development projects. The tools for managing requirements are only loosely integrated with the tools used for implementing the system. Furthermore, while implementation tools are based on a rich syntax and well-understood semantics (the programing language itself), requirements tools are often only aware of weakly structured text. This leads to accidental complexity in integrating requirements with each other and with implementation artifacts. In this paper we describe an approach based on language engineering technologies that results in integrated development environments where both requirements and the code are treated as first class entities. Parts of requirements can be used directly as the implementation, and they are managed with the same tools that are used for the implementation. The approach is illustrated by an extension of the mbeddr system, a comprehensive IDE for embedded software development, with functionality for managing requirements.