Integrating information requirements along processes

Abstract

Information requirements have traditionally been collected separately for different business functions and then integrated into an overall specification. The recent orientation to a process perspective in managing business activities has emphasized early integration, by concurrently analyzing business processes and information requirements. Accordingly, information requirements analysis methodologies should take into account these new integration needs. In the paper, we discuss these new integration needs. Traditional methods for requirements integration from database design are analyzed and unfulfilled integration needs are highlighted. Then, other research fields are surveyed that dealt with problems similar to integration and offer interesting results: Recent developments in database design, software engineering and requirements reuse. Finally, we compare the different contributions and indicate open research directions.