Abstract-Nonfunctional Requirements (NFRs) have been frequently neglected or forgotten in software design. They have been presented as a second or even third class type of requirement, frequently hidden inside notes. We tackle this problem by treating NFRs as first class requirements. We present a process to elicit NFRs, analyze their interdependencies, and trace them to functional conceptual models. We focus our attention on conceptual models expressed using UML (Unified Modeling Language). Extensions to UML are proposed to allow NFRs to be expressed. We will show how to integrate NFRs into the Class, Sequence, and Collaboration Diagrams. We will also show how Use Cases and Scenarios can be adapted to deal with NFRs. This work was used in three case studies and their results suggest that by using our proposal we can improve the quality of the resulting conceptual models.

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The development of complex information systems calls for conceptual models that describe aspects beyond entities and activities. In particular, recent research has pointed out that conceptual models need to model goals, in order to capture the intentions which underlie complex situations within an organisational context. This paper focuses on one class of goals, namely nonfunctional requirements (NFR), which need to be captured and analysed from the very early phases of the software development process. The paper presents a framework for integrating NFRs into the ER and OO models. This framework has been validated by two case studies, one of which is very large. The results of the case studies suggest that goal modelling during early phases can lead to a more productive and complete modelling activity.

Software transparency is a new and important concern that software developers must deal with. This paper reports on initial findings on exploring the obstacles for enabling software transparency. For providing a definition of transparency and understanding the semantics of software transparency, a SIG (Softgoal Interdependence Graph) is used, which has been refined in three versions. Based on three example situations we demonstrate the application of the transparency SIG.

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Complex information systems need conceptual models to deal with aspects beyond the usual entity and activity framework.Recent research has pointed out that conceptual models need to deal with goals, in order to model complex situations that happen in the real world. Our work investigated a new strategy that allows the integration of non-functional requirements (NFR) into data models. Integration is done by representing the NFRs in a data model and investigating how NFR's satisfaction affects the data model. We adopted the widely used ER conceptual model as the data modeling representation schema. In order to start the validation of our strategy we applied it to a real system. The results so far confirm our hypothesis that NFR's integration into data models do help in achieving better understanding of what is being modeled.