A UML-based Approach for Representing Problem Frames

Problem frames are a very promising approach to requirements modelling. Nevertheless, they suffer from some limitations that could make them scarcely appealing for industrial software development, especially in the environments that adopt UML-based development processes. In fact, problem frames are currently expressed by means of a notation that is neither very expressive nor easy to use, nor supported by tools. Moreover, the fact that the problem domain and the requirements are expressed in the problem frames notation can make it difficult for programmers to fully comprehend requirements, and does not favour traceability. Here a UML-based notation for representing problem frames is presented, in order to solve the aforementioned problems while preserving the concepts and the value of problem frames.