Automating the transition from stakeholders' requests to use cases in OOAD

The object model creation process (OMCP) is considered a major task in object-oriented analysis and design (OOAD). In the rational unified process (RUP), objects and classes are identified from the use case model, which is a combination of the use case diagram and the use case specification (UCS) document. The automation of the generation of the class model assumes that the UCS is complete, accurate and unambiguous. However, in reality, the UCS is written in free form natural language and is therefore likely to be ambiguous and complex. To avoid this problem, the use of case templates and guidelines is proposed for writing UCS. The paper presents a methodology to automate the transition from stakeholders' requests to the use case model. The methodology uses a natural language parser to parse stakeholders' requests according to various guidelines. The automation process is discussed with an example.