Premium
Method for Deriving Functional Architectures from Use Cases
Author(s) -
Lamm Jesko G.,
Weilkiens Tim
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
systems engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.474
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1520-6858
pISSN - 1098-1241
DOI - 10.1002/sys.21265
Subject(s) - computer science , heuristics , functional design , domain (mathematical analysis) , functional programming , functional requirement , process (computing) , representation (politics) , architecture , software engineering , functional decomposition , systems modeling language , systems engineering , unified modeling language , theoretical computer science , programming language , engineering , machine learning , mathematics , art , mathematical analysis , software , politics , political science , law , visual arts , operating system
Functional architecture enables the description of systems independent of their technology. A method for obtaining functional architectures for systems (the FAS method) is introduced. It provides a well‐defined procedure for deriving functional architecture from use cases by using heuristics for grouping functions and allocating them to functional blocks. A specialty of the FAS method is the structural representation of functional architectures in block‐oriented form. An example system from the hearing instrument domain is used for demonstrating the method. The application of the FAS method together with the SysML modeling language is described, and modeling tool support is discussed. The authors report their experiences with the method from industrial projects, for example that analysts and architects could improve their communication by means of the FAS method. It is concluded that the method together with tool support facilitates the team process of creating model‐based functional architectures based on use cases.