A Case-Based Approach for Elaboration of Design
Requirements

Paulo Gomes1,2

1 ISEC - Instituto Superior de Engenharia
de Coimbra
Quinta da Nora, 3030 Coimbra

pgomes@sun.isec.pt

Carlos Bento2

2 CISUC - Centro de Informtica e
Sistemas da Universidade de Coimbra
Polo II - Universidade de Coimbra, 3030
Coimbra

{pgomes|bento}@eden.dei.uc.pt

Abstract
The process of Case-Based Creative Design comprises: problem
specification, problem elaboration, case retrieval, case adaptation, and
verification. Problem specification and elaboration are crucial stages in the
design process. Notwithstanding most of the current systems do not address
this phase, assuming that the problem is well defined and complete, which is
not a valid assumption for most of the situations.
In this paper we propose a case-based method for problem
elaboration. Old design episodes are used for problem specification and
elaboration. Through the use of a graphical editor the user explores a set of
alternative problem specifications. This helps the user in the problem
specification task. If the problem still remains ill or incompletely defined, a
problem elaboration method is used to complete the problem specification
based on a library of cases and domain knowledge.


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