Ontological Analysis of KAOS Using Separation of Reference

Goal modelling is emerging as a central requirements engineering (RE) technique. Unfortunately, current goal-oriented languages are not interop- erable with one another or with modelling languages that address other model- ling perspectives. This is a problem because the emerging generation of model- driven information systems are likely to depend on coordinated use of several modelling languages to represent different perspectives on the enterprise and its proposed information system. The paper applies a structured approach to de- scribe a well-known goal-oriented language, KAOS, by mapping it onto a phi- losophically grounded ontology. The structured approach facilitates language interoperability because, when other languages are described using the same approach, they become mapped onto the same ontology. The approach thereby provides an intermediate language for comparison, consistency checking, up- date reflection, view synchronisation and, eventually, model-to-model transla- tion both between goal-oriented languages and between different languages.