A structured approach to support collaborative design, specification and documentation of communication protocols

Especially in complex software development projects, involving various actors and communication interde-pendencies, the design of communication protocols is crucially important. In this work, a structured approach to support the design, specification and documentation of communication protocol standards is presented. To do so, we refer to a complex use case, dealing with the integration of multiple mobility services on a single platform. This endeavor requires the development of a large number of independently usable protocol standards which adhere to a multitude of quality aspects. A structured approach is required to speed up and simplify development and also to enable synergies between these protocols. Our requirements analysis methodology consists of interviewing domain experts to identify important aspects and shortcomings of the current development process and to elicit potential improvements. These intermediate results are prioritized and incorporated into a requ irements specification for a standardized communication protocol development process. Furthermore, we assess existing software solutions in terms of their applicability.