Scenarios in the loop: Integrated requirements analysis and automotive system validation

The development of safety-relevant systems in the automotive industry requires the definition of high-quality requirements and tests for the coordination and monitoring of development activities in an agile development environment. In this paper we describe a Scenarios in the Loop (SCIL) approach. SCIL combines (1) natural language requirements specification based on Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) with (2) formal and test-driven requirements modeling and analysis, and (3) integrates discipline-specific tools for software and system validation during development. A central element of SCIL is a flexible and executable scenario-based modeling language, the Scenario Modeling Language for Kotlin (SMLK). SMLK allows for an intuitive requirements formalization, and supports engineers to move iteratively, and continuously aided by automated checks, from stakeholder requirements to the validation of the implemented system. We evaluated the approach using a real example from the field of e-mobility.