Capability-oriented architectural analysis method based on fuzzy description logic

Abstract

A number of problems may arise from architectural requirements modeling, including alignment of it with business strategy, model integration and handling the uncertain and vague information. The paper introduces a method for modeling architectural requirements in a way of ontology-based and capability-oriented requirements elicitation. The requirements can be modeled within a three-layer framework. The Capability Meta-concept Framework is provided at the top level. The domain experts can capture the domain knowledge within the framework, forming the domain ontology at the second level. The domain concepts can be used for extending the UML to produce a domain-specific modeling language. A fuzzy UML is introduced to model the vague and uncertain features of the capability requirements. An algorithm is provided to transform the fuzzy UML models into the fuzzy Description Logics ontology for model verification. A case study is given to demonstrate the applicability of the method.