Objectiver's methodology : KAOS

Quality Starts with the Definition of your Goals !

Most of the software engineering methodologies currently in use are dedicated to the specification of a solution and do not really address the description of the problem, that is, specifying the goals to be met, describing the application domain, deciding who will perform which actions to satisfy the goals, and so on; in one word, to perform a requirements analysis.

A KAOS requirements analysis is broken down into three phases:

• information gathering (e.g. existing documents, interviews) that shall be used to guide the construction of the goal model
• goal, agent, operation, and domain modelling
• document generation (requirement specification document, IT master plan, ...)

During the modelling phase, all relevant concepts are identified and related to each other using the KAOS-specific notation.

Support of the KAOS method is provided by Objectiver, the requirements engineering tool developed by Respect-IT SA .

The best way to start with KAOS consists in reading the KAOS Tutorial (2.1 Mb). Other resources available on this web site include a list of white papers and presentations.

The KAOS approach is the result of several research projects led by Prof. A. van Lamsweerde (University of Louvain, Belgium) and funded by the European Union, the Belgian and Walloon governments.