Bridging the Gap between Natural Language Requirements and Formal Specifications
In this paper, we discuss the problem of transforming a natural language requirements specification into a formal specification. We present several methods to support the process and implemented them in a commercial tool, the Requirements Quality Suite. We achieve this by enriching the requirement text with additional structure (using a knowledge base) and asking the requirement engineer to formulate the requirements in Boilerplates. The additional structure is used to analyze the requirements automatically or semi-automatically leading finally to a formal specification. The formal specification then enables verification activities, such as testing or formal analysis. We discuss our methods by examples from an industrial case study and report on our experiences.
This paper shows how lexical choice during text generation depemls on linguistic context. We argue that muking c(Irrect lexieal choice in rite textual context requires distinguishing properties of concepts, which are ntme or less independent of file language, from language-specific of text where lexemes and their semantic and symantic relations are represented. In particular, l.exical Fnnctions are well-suited to tormalizing anaphoric lexical links in text, including the