11 ReChaP Prototype: A Tool for Simplifying Requirement Change Propagation to Software Design

Requirement change propagation (ReChaP) approach has been proposed previously, intended to promote a simple but significant way to propagate requirement changes to software design elements, thus providing sufficient supports during software development and evolution. In this paper, extensive descriptions will be made toward the development of the tailored-design prototype tool as a proof-of-concept of the proposed ReChaP approach. Four main features of the identified ReChaP prototype are: graphical model interface, requirement palette management, requirement specification definition, and requirement specification modifications. These components have been developed using the Generic Modeling Environment (GME) case tool, and C++ language is used as an interpreter to incorporate the prototype features. The library system case study is applied to evaluate the usefulness criteria of the ReChaP prototype. As a result, the ReChaP prototype demonstrated has been proven in simplifying the tedious requirement changes propagation process to the software design elements, during the software development and evolution activities.