RATM: Requirements analyzer and traceability manager

Abstract

To fill the need for automated assistance during the system engineering process, a prototype computer-aided tool emphasizing requirements analysis and traceability management is designed and developed. An object-oriented approach is used which leads to the selection of Smalltalk as the implementation language. Peter Chen's Entity-Relationship- Attribute database structure is selected to maintain a complete and consistent system definition. "User-friendly" interfaces are implemented to allow efficient manipulation and representation of the system definition data. These interfaces include a system engineering editor, two engineering views (text and hierarchy), a requirement extractor, and a schema extender. The prototype is expandable and extendable to permit future upgrades to support additional views, reports, and dynamic verification of models. With system definition becoming increasingly important in designing error-free, cost-effective systems, this computer-aided system engineering tool provides an accessible source of automated assistance to support the engineer.