The special requirements of multimedia systems: how to choose the most effective modelling notations

Although still in its infancy, multimedia system production is a growing and rapidly evolving industry. The nature of multimedia systems, incorporating text, graphics, animation, sound and video, means that the process of eliciting, specifying and validating requirements for such systems differs in many ways from the process of requirements capture in other software development. The literature on requirements engineering contains little in the way of either theoretical guidance or empirical case studies relating to the specification of requirements for interactive multimedia systems. Where advice does exist for multimedia systems, it is geared mainly to their design and production, rather than to the engineering of their requirements. No one has yet come forward with techniques or tools specifically designed to model requirements for multimedia systems; nor has any systematic evaluation of currently available approaches been carried out in this context.In this paper we identify some of the distinctive features of multimedia systems that have a material effect on the requirements process. We then develop a list of criteria for assessing the suitability of notations for effective modelling of requirements for a multimedia system.