Towards the integration of SysML and Problem Frames

Today, analysts are offered a wide set of conceptual tools for requirements enginering, including modelling languages, like UML and SysML, and methodological approaches, like Problem Frames. However, these conceptual tools, which address different needs and activities, are generally not integrated, thus making it difficult to effectively use more than one of them at a time. This paper addresses the integration of Problem Frames and SysML, by presenting how a set of well known problem frames can be represented by means of SysML. The idea is that problem frames can benefit from SysML as a powerful notation, while SysML users get a sound methodological approach, which is absent from the current proposal of SysML. The integration opens the way to a full model centric requirement analysis approach. Models favour the transition from the requirements to the design phase, hence the resulting model can be conveniently used as a starting point for design, allowing a very smooth and translation-free transition from the requirements to the design phase.