Exception handling in the software lifecycle

Exception handling is a structuring technique that facilitates system desig n by encapsulating the process of error recovery. Traditional methods deal with exceptions at tate design and implementation phases, thus losing the c ontext of error detection and recovery, and the correlation between excepti ons and their handlers. The proposed approach emphasises the separation of the treatment of requirements-related, design-related, and implementation-r elated exceptions during the software lifecycle by specifying the exception s and their handlers in the context where faults are identified. The descri ption of exceptional behaviour is supported by a co-operative object-orient ed approach that allows the representation of collaborative behaviour betwe en objects at different phases of the software development. The feasibility of the approach is demonstrated in terms of a benchmark case study.