Representing requirements in natural language as concept lattices

We have developed a viewpoint development approach to identify and reconcile differences between stakeholder requirements. The initial phase in our approach seeks to provide a formal solution to the problem of converting requirements descriptions in natural language into a computer processable representation. After the group brainstorms the functional requirements in the form of use cases, natural language descriptions axe entered by individual stakeholders for each alternative viewpoint. LinkGrammar is used by ExtrAns to translate the use case sentences into flat logical forms (FLFs). FLFs axe used to create crosstables. Formal Concept Analysis uses the crosstables to develop a graphical representation of the viewpoints and to assist comparison of terms and concepts. We call our approach RECOCASE as we offer a CASE (computer aided software engineering) tool to assist with viewpoint RECOnciliation. This paper focuses on the translation of natural language into crosstables to allow the generation of concept lattices and subsequent comparison of viewpoints.