A Method and Automated Support Tool for Model Correlation

Enterprises today rely heavily upon a wide variety of modeling methods and modeling technologies for the development of requirements for complex, software intensive systems. In general, however, (i) the different modeling methods provide very different perspectives on system information, (ii) models created with these methods are expressed in very different modeling languages, and (iii) models are created by different system modelers. These three facts pose a significant challenge to the formulation of requirements for complex, coherent, complet, and comprehensive set of requirements for the system, the various models of the system (the "source" models) must be correlated in a fashion that permits system designers to understand the interrelationships, constraints, etc. between system elements represented in those models. Only then will it be possible to isoate conflicts and inconsistencies between source models, identify missing information, and calculate the impact of changes in the requirements of one part of a system on other parts. The purpose of the proposed project is to develop both a model correlation method and a corresponding software tool that jointly overcome this challenge and provice rich, robust model correlation environment.