Process and system for automatic generation of functional architecture documents and software design and analysis specification documents from natural language

• US 10,303,441 B2
• Filed: 04/28/2016
• Issued: 05/28/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nadia Analia Huebra
• Original Assignee: Nadia Analia Huebra
• Inventors: Huebra, Nadia Analia
• Primary Examiner(s): Pan, Hang
• Application Number:
  US15/141,748
• Publication Number:
  US 20170003937A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,125 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/211 Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/268 Morphological analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/73 Program documentation

Abstract

The present invention is a computer-implemented system and method for automatic generation of Functional Architecture, business, analysis and software design documents based on phrases expressed in natural language.

Eligible languages and their syntactic and grammatical features can be entered into the system. The system receives the description of the case in natural language, in one of the eligible languages, through an input/output device. The processor automatically analyzes the description, automatically extracts the functional components from its morphosyntactic structure and automatically generates functional architecture documents for use in industry. Based on the functional components of the text, the processor automatically generates design components in order to produce business, analysis, and software design specification documents.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for generating functional-architecture documents from phrases expressed in natural language that describes a case, which are stored in a database memory, comprising:

A. uploading a logical structure named MAS metamodel through an input/output device, the MAS metamodel establishing axiomatic principles of the natural language and which determines the behavior of a processor that carries out the following functions depending on its configuration;

automatic sentence analyzer, automatic software designer and document generator, according to morphosyntactic rules stored into the database memory, the MAS metamodel comprises the following sub-stages;

A1. storing the MAS metamodel in the database memory, which defines a logic that the processor configured as an automatic sentence analyzer_will use to generate analysis and design documents, the logic includes an automatic generation of performer words, performable words and performance words, based on transitive verbs;

A2. storing the logic of the MAS metamodel for morphosyntactic rules in the database memory, which establishes that every sentence in natural language can be structured based on a) questions logic;

that define to what question of the form “

when,”

“

who,”

“

what,”

“

how” and

“

where,”

named as WH questions, a word within the simple sentence belongs, b) a step type logic;

that defines what type of verb comprises the WH question (explicit calculation (FX), checking/confirmation (CC), query/search (QS), linking (L), not specified (F)) and c) a words logic;

it defines the type of word;

B. inputting through a language user interface (of the input/output device) a list of eligible languages, a grammatical and syntactic features of each eligible language and storing this data in the database memory;

C. inputting through a case user interface (of the display device) to input a description of “

the case”

as text in one of the natural languages selected from the list of eligible languages from stage B and then storing said description in the database memory;

D. identifying simple sentences of the case from Stage C, responding for each sentence to the WH questions and using the case user interface (of the input/output device) to upload them so they can then be stored in the database memory;

E. identifying functional components on the simple sentences from stage d, through the processor configured as an automatic sentence analyzer, as is established in stage A, and storing them in the database memory;

F. automatically generating functional architecture documents based on functional components from Stage E, through the processor configured as a document generator, using a graphical notation defined specifically for this type of document, the generation of functional architecture comprises the following sub-stages;

F1. applying the morphosyntactic rules, based on which the processor configured as a document generator excludes from the functional components specific words stated, and creates new functional components in case of transitive verbs;

a functional component, the name of which is a verb plus the agentive suffix “

ER” and

other functional component, the name of which is the verb plus the suffix “

BLE;

”

F2. defining the graphical notation that is to be used in functional architecture diagrams, using formats, graphical notation, and sentences user interface (STD) of the input/output device, indicating a graphical component to be used in the diagram for each functional component, according to a corresponding word type, and storing them in the database memory;

F3. generating the functional architecture documents using the processor, configured as a document generator, based on the functional components stored in the database memory, using the notation defined in substage F2, and displaying them on the input/output device.

2. The method in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that stage B consists of the following substages:

B1. entering through the input/output device an order of adjectives of the chosen eligible language and storing it in the database memory;

B2. entering through the input/output device special words of the chosen eligible language, which can be found on the text of the simple sentences from stage D and are to be excluded from the list of functional components, and storing them in the database memory;

B3. entering through the input/output device grouping words of the chosen eligible language, which are used to link functional components that contain more than one word and can be found in the text of the simple sentences from Stage D, and storing them in the database memory;

B4. entering through the input/output device verb endings of the infinitive verbs of the chosen eligible language, which can be found in the text of the simple sentences from stage D, and storing them in the database memory.

3. The method in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that stage C consists of the following substages:

C1. choosing the language in which the case is described, from the eligible languages defined in stage B, using the input/output device configured as a case user interface;

C3. identifying the steps of the case by applying the substage A2 and storing them in the database memory.

4. The method in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that stage C consists of identifying components that structure the context of “

the case”

, layers, resources, processes, subprocesses and moments, and storing them in the database memory.

5. The method in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that stage D consists of the following substages:

D1. answering questions who, what, where, how and when for each of the steps of “

the case”

identified in stage B and storing the answers as text in a database memory;

D2. concatenating the text of the answers from each step into a simple sentence and storing said sentence as text in a database memory.

6. The method in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that stage E consists of deconstructing the simple sentences into words, characterizing them according to the chosen language, and identifying the functional components of the simple sentence and storing them in the database memory.

7. The method in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that, in Stage E, a user adds functional components that are not present in the list of functional components identified automatically from simple sentences.

8. The method in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that, in Stage E, the user adds formula expressions that describe mathematical behavior of “

the case”

for all CC- and FX-type steps.

9. The method in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that morphosyntactic rules defined in substage A1 are applied in stage E, based on which the processor configured as an automatic sentence analyzer excludes specific words stated in a rule and creates new functional components for the cases of transitive verbs:

a functional component, the name of which is the verb plus the agentive suffix “

ER” and

a functional component, the name of which is the verb plus the suffix “

BLE”

.

10. A computer-implemented method for generating software design specification documents from phrases expressed in natural language that describe a case, which are stored in a database memory, characterized by the following stages:

A. uploading through an input/output device a MAS metamodel into the database memory, the MAS metamodel establishes the axiomatic principles of natural language and determines the behavior of a processor, according to the morphosyntactic rules stored into the database memory, the MAS metamodel comprises the following sub-stages;

A1. storing the MAS metamodel in the database memory, which defines a logic that the processor will use to generate analysis and design documents;

the logic includes an automatic generation of performer words, performable words and performance words, based on transitive verbs;

A2. storing the logic of the MAS metamodel for morphosyntactic rules in the database memory, which establishes that every sentence in natural language can be structured based on a) questions logic;

that defines to what question of the form “

when”

, “

who”

, “

what”

, “

how”

, “

where”

named as a WH questions, a word within the simple sentence belongs, b) a step type logic;

it defines what type of verb comprises the WH question (explicit calculation (FX), checking/confirmation (CC), query/search (QS), linking (L), not specified(F)) and c) a words logic;

it defines the type of word;

B. entering through language user interface (of the input/output device) eligible languages, grammatical and syntactical features of each eligible language and storing those data in the database memory;

C. uploading through case user interface (of the display device) a description of “

the case”

as text in one natural languages selected from the list of eligible languages from stage B and then storing them in the database memory;

D. identifying simple sentences of the case that correspond to steps from stage C and using the case user interface (of the input/output device) to upload them so they can then be stored in the database memory;

E. automatically identifying functional components based on the simple sentences from stage D, through the processor configured as an automatic sentence analyzer and storing them in the database memory;

F. automatically generating functional architecture documents based on the functional components from stage E, through the processor configured as a document generator, using graphical notation defined specifically for this type of document;

G. automatically identifying design components based on the functional components from stage E, through the processor configured as an automatic software designer and storing them in the database memory;

H. uploading through the formats, graphical notations and STD sentences user interface (of the display device) the output formats of the business, analysis and design documents, the parameters of standard sentences for the requirements and the graphical notation for design diagrams and storing them in the database memory;

I. automatically generating business documents based on the simple sentences from stage D, the analysis documents based on the functional components from stage E, and the design documents based on the design components from stage F, through the processor configured as a document generator, applying the Formats, Graphical Notations and STD Sentences defined in stage G.

11. The method in accordance with claim 10,

characterized in that stage G consists of the following substages:

G1. selecting and creating groups of functional components, their classes and inheritance relationships, and storing them in the database memory;

G2. creating formula classes based on FX- and CC-type steps and storing them in the database memory;

G3. creating domain classes based on QA-type steps and storing them in the database memory;

G4. creating relationship classes based on L-type steps and storing them in the database memory;

G5. creating operation classes based on F-type steps and storing them in the database memory.

12. The method in accordance with claim 10, characterized in that, in stage E, a user adds error, validation and warning messages.

13. The method in accordance with claim 10, characterized in that stage I consists of the following substages:

I1. generating business documents;

I2. generating analysis documents;

I3. generating software design documents.

14. The method in accordance with claim 13, characterized in that stage I1 generates the business documents through the following actions:

a) ordering dimensions, temporal activities and simple sentences;

b) joining previously ordered components; and

c) displaying the business documents on the input/output device.

15. The method in accordance with claim 13,

characterized in that Stage 12 generates the analysis documents through the following actions:

a) assembling global functional requirements, defining global requirements for NOUN components and defining global requirements for VERB components;

b) assembling detailed functional requirements, defining detailed requirements for NOUN, PERSON, VERB and DO components; and

c) displaying the analysis documents on the input/output device.

16. The method in accordance with claim 13, characterized in that stage I3 generates the design documents and displays them on the input/output device.

17. The method in accordance with claim 10, characterized in that, in stage H, a user can use templates to compose the structure of the text of functional analysis documents of “

the case”

, using the formats, graphical notation and STD sentences user interface of the input/output device, to then store them in the database memory.

18. The method in accordance with claim 10, characterized in that, in stage I, a user stores the design components of “

the case”

in extensible markup language (XML) format.

19. A system for generating functional architecture documents and business, analysis and software design specification documents from descriptions expressed in natural language phrases that describe a case, which are stored in a database, composed of the following:

an input/output device, configured as a language user interface, a case user interface, a formats, graphical notation and STD sentences user interface, and a document display user interface, to enter eligible languages and their structure, to enter a description of “

the case”

in natural language, to enter formats and graphical notations for document generation, and to display functional architecture documents and the business, analysis and software design specification documents;

a main memory connected to the input/output device, which interacts with a processor, configured for volatile storage of the description of the case, functional components, design components and the functional architecture documents and the business, analysis and software design specification documents;

the aforementioned processor configured to receive at least one description in natural language from the user, in which said description includes the case and identifies the description of the case;

the aforementioned processor, configured as an automatic sentence analyzer, for creating simple sentences that correspond to steps of the case and analyzing them to automatically generate functional components based on the simple sentences;

the aforementioned processor, configured as an automatic software designer, for identifying the design components of the case based on the functional components; and

,

the aforementioned processor, configured as a document generator, for generating functional architecture documents and business, analysis and software design specification documents based on the functional components and the design components;

a database memory connected to the processor, configured to statically store a MAS metamodel, languages, words and morphosyntactic rules and formats, graphical notation and STD sentences, and also configured to dynamically store simple sentences and questions, functional components and design components.