A domain aware tool for guiding requirements capture and design

EquipCo is a multi-national electronics company. One of its tasks is to supply complex electronic systems that interact with customer supplied equipment. These systems are usually low-volume and high-cost, so the task of accurately capturing customer requirements is expensive but vital. This paper describes the CORECT tool, a computerised tool that aids this requirements capture process. The tool is notable in that it integrates many technologies and methods (graphics, Natural Language Generation, and Expert Systems, CSCW, ethnographic workplace studies, etc.) to provide different users with multiple perspectives onto the design artifact. A "permissive" user interface coupled with a monitoring expert system seems to be very useful in guiding users through the requirements capture process, allowing users enough freedom to express a design while ensuring they never get lost.