This clearly written paper is based on the recent dissertation of the first author. The motivation for the study arose from two shortcomings of the current practice of requirements engineering (RE): currently used conceptual models (CMs) are oriented to specific development paradigms, and once CMs are developed, it is difficult to switch to another development paradigm. These shortcomings would oblige developers to think in terms of a selected implementation paradigm before even understanding the problem.

The proposed approach, called the problem-oriented analysis method (POAM), consists of two phases: a problem-oriented analysis that seeks to generate a generic conceptual model (GCM) based on the problem, and a software-oriented analysis phase that converts the GCM into a CM. The details of the two phases, as well as a detailed example, are included in the text.

Based on the results discussed, the authors state that POAM is more effective than conventional development approaches, such as structured, object-oriented, and real-time. However, since POAM has an additional phase, it would take more time to finalize an RE study. The team is also developing software tools to support the advocated activities. Depending on the availability and ability of these tools, especially to propagate the updated requirements, POAM can be an important approach. The paper is worth reading for those interested in RE.