This book which opens with an editorial chapter and followed by four parts is a good reference book for any researcher who is in the fringe of entering the scope of research in
Rationale Management. The editorial chapter gives a historical survey of rationale approaches, both in general and for SE in particular.
Part 1 ( Fundamentals – Rationale Representation, Capture, and Use ) describes fundamental problems of
RM and how some of them might be solved. The other parts focus on the three most prominent uses for RM in SE today. The three uses, RM during
requirements, where the
decisions on the scope and functional and nonfunctional properties are made; RM during software architecting, where the fundamental decisions on the construction are made, and finally, RM for organizing reusable bodies of
knowledge are described. The authors agree that many early researchers in design rationale estimated that RM systems would soon be in widespread use in real-world projects underestimating the difficulties of making RM practical.
Part 2 ( Rationale Management for Requirements
Engineering ) in five parts deals with the RM approaches that he adapts to deal with these challenges, such as supporting different stakeholders achieving shared understanding of the problem under consideration, consensus over the scope of the solution, capture the origins of the requirements, or supporting reconceptualization and reformulation of requirements after new insights have been gained.
Part 3 ( Design Rationale and Software Architecting ) deals rationale in the context of software
architecture covering a wider range of topics including a framework for capturing and managing architecture design knowledge, capturing and using rationale for software architecture, software maintenance using rationale, role of rationale in design of product line architectures, role and impact of assumptions in SE and its products, and using design decisions to bridge rationale and architecture, etc. The universal rationales such as rationale for organizing bodies of knowledge comprising knowledge and justifications for decisions to be reused in any kind of software engineering project is discussed in four chapters of Part 4 . This is a good guide and handbook not only any researcher but also to a layman in this field to gain an insight into rationale management in the software engineering.
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