OBJECTS, ACTORS AND ROLES: AN IDENTITY TRIAD FOR REQUIREMENTS
Robert R. Rhodes · INCOSE International Symposium · 1996
ABSTRACT The author proposes a technique for identifying all needed requirements for a system component. The technique is applied at the earliest stage of a system project, when the system developer and the customer must work together to define operations concepts and capabilities for the conceived system. This also is the time when system engineering seems more like an art than a discipline, and guidance is rarely to be had. The technique employs “actors”, “roles”, and “objects” to identify all the functional capabilities required for a system component in the context of a larger system in which the component resides. The technique can be used very early on, even when an information model has not been fully formulated, and the system boundaries are not yet clear. The technique can be further used at all levels of requirement analysis and architecture design, because it is based on external “interest” in the functional capabilities of the component.