Business Process Automation System for Requirements Engineering

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing approaches to application development lack clear guidelines for ensuring consistency, completeness, and correctness of requirements, particularly in separating the problem and solution domains, and do not effectively address the challenges of capturing, analyzing, and prototyping requirements, leading to potential errors and inefficiencies.

Innovation Solution

A business process automation system that captures and processes functional, modularization, non-functional, and deployment requirements data through a data acquisition, organization, and processing means, providing context-sensitive alerts and prototyping capabilities to generate an executable optimized requirements set, separating the problem and solution domains and enabling agile development.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Manufacturing precision

If comprehensive requirements gathering methods are used, then completeness of requirements is improved, but complexity of the development process increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improverequirements completenessVSAvoiddevelopment process complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Manufacturing precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the requirements gathering process into distinct modules: use case identification module, requirements specification module, verification module, and validation module. Each module handles specific aspects of requirements engineering independently, improving completeness while managing complexity through structured division of labor.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces an automated requirements management system as an intermediary between stakeholders and the development team. This system captures, stores, and processes requirements data, acting as a mediator that ensures completeness without directly increasing human development process complexity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Manufacturing precision

If multiple stakeholders are involved in requirements gathering, then correctness of requirements is improved, but time required for verification and validation increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improverequirements correctnessVSAvoidverification and validation time

Core Design Contradiction:

Manufacturing precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements preliminary verification checks during the requirements gathering phase itself, rather than waiting until separate verification stages. The system validates requirements format, consistency, and completeness as they are entered, preventing errors from propagating and reducing later validation time.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent establishes feedback loops where requirements are automatically verified and validated, with results fed back to stakeholders for immediate correction. This continuous feedback mechanism ensures correctness while reducing overall time by identifying and resolving issues promptly rather than through lengthy sequential review processes.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

3Reliability

If detailed requirements specification is performed, then reliability of the application is improved, but productivity of development decreases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveapplication reliabilityVSAvoiddevelopment productivity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent uses templates and standardized formats for requirements specification that can be reused across different projects and stakeholders. Once a requirements template is created and validated, it can be copied and adapted for similar scenarios, ensuring reliability through consistency while dramatically improving productivity by eliminating repetitive documentation work.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

4Adaptability or versatility

If manual requirements management is used, then flexibility in handling changes is improved, but errors in requirements tracking increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improverequirements change flexibilityVSAvoidrequirements tracking accuracy

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces manual mechanical processes of requirements tracking with an automated computer-based system. The system automatically tracks requirements, their status, changes, and dependencies, eliminating human errors in tracking while maintaining flexibility through configurable workflows and stakeholder access.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Data Source

PatentUS8386994B2Method of automation of business processes and apparatus therefor

Publication Date: 2013.02.26 TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LTD

AI summary

The invention disclosed relates to the field of requirement specification in application development. This invention provides a system for business process automation which can generate an executable optimized requirements set by capturing the requirements from the users and processing them to create prototypes. Feedback is obtained from external users on the played prototypes to correct and enhance the requirements to obtain an optimized, complete, correct and consistent requirements set. This helps in the successful development of business application with minimal errors in a very short time.