Requirements validation via automated natural language parsing

Object oriented analysis (OOA) has become a popular method for analyzing system requirements. Unfortunately however, none of the current versions of OOA have included a validation technique tailored to the object oriented approach. Most, instead, merely recommend document reviews without specifying what kinds of problems to look for. The paper explores the question by applying a natural language parser to a requirements document, extracting candidate objects, methods and associations, composing them into an object model diagram, and then comparing the results to those determined by manual OOA. To do this, we have adapted an automated natural language parser and used it to examine several high level specifications. The results indicate that with a modest amount of effort, our technique can give valuable feedback to the analyst.<
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