From burns@raid.cas.mcmaster.ca Wed Jan 23 12:58:36 2002 Return-Path: Received: from blackadder.cis.mcmaster.ca (blackadder.CIS.McMaster.CA [130.113.128.1]) by silicon.csci.csusb.edu (8.11.2/8.11.2) with ESMTP id g0NKwZe13325 for ; Wed, 23 Jan 2002 12:58:35 -0800 Received: from raid.cas.mcmaster.ca (raid.cas.McMaster.CA [130.113.70.14]) by blackadder.cis.mcmaster.ca with ESMTP id QAA05974; Wed, 23 Jan 2002 16:01:04 -0500 (EST) Received: (from burns@localhost) by raid.cas.mcmaster.ca (8.8.8+Sun/8.8.8) id PAA14574 for complete_seminar; Wed, 23 Jan 2002 15:58:49 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 15:58:49 -0500 (EST) From: Doris Burns Message-Id: <200201232058.PAA14574@raid.cas.mcmaster.ca> To: complete_seminar@raid.cas.mcmaster.ca Subject: NEW - SQRL Report Series Status: R January 23, 2002 Dear Sir/Madame: Below is an abstract from our first Software Quality Research Laboratory report. The SQRL series replaces the the SERG (Software Quality Research Laboratory) report series. The report is listed on our web page and is available in both PostScript and PDF formats. Our web address for downloading reports is: http://www.crl.mcmaster.ca/SERG/serg.publications.html Yours truly, Doris Burns SQRL Report No. 1 On Documenting the Requirements for Computer Programs Based on Models of Physical Phenomena Konstantin Kreyman and David Lorge Parnas Abstract Programs for use by Scientists and Engineers are usually embodiments of mathematical models of physical phenomena. Complete and accurate models are usually quite complex because they must deal with the wide-variety of situations that can arise in the real-world. Informal descriptions of these models are often incomplete, imprecise, and, inaccurate and are not suitable for specifying what is required of a software package. This paper presents an approach to writing requirements documents for such programs. It demonstrates how tabular notation can make precise mathematical expressions more readable. It also shows how we can document systems in which the user is given some control of the computational method to be used.