Relevance, benefits, and problems of software modelling and model driven techniques—A survey in the Italian industry

Context Claimed benefits of software modelling and model driven techniques are improvements in productivity, portability, maintainability and interoperability. However, little effort has been devoted at collecting evidence to evaluate their actual relevance, benefits and usage complications. Goal The main goals of this paper are: (1) assess the diffusion and relevance of software modelling and MD techniques in the Italian industry, (2) understand the expected and achieved benefits, and (3) identify which problems limit/prevent their diffusion. Method We conducted an exploratory personal opinion survey with a sample of 155 Italian software professionals by means of a Web-based questionnaire on-line from February to April 2011. Results Software modelling and MD techniques are very relevant in the Italian industry. The adoption of simple modelling brings common benefits (better design support, documentation improvement, better maintenance, and higher software quality), while MD techniques make it easier to achieve: improved standardization, higher productivity, and platform independence. We identified problems, some hindering adoption (too much effort required and limited usefulness) others preventing it (lack of competencies and supporting tools). Conclusions The relevance represents an important objective motivation for researchers in this area. The relationship between techniques and attainable benefits represents an instrument for practitioners planning the adoption of such techniques. In addition the findings may provide hints for companies and universitie

Practical Application Of Uml Activity Diagrams For The Generation Of Test Cases

Software testing and debugging represents around one third of total effort in development projects. Different factors which have influence on poor practices of testing have been identified through specific surveys. Amongst several, one of the most important is the lack of efficient methods to exploit development models for generating test cases. This paper presents a new method for automatically generating a complete set of functional test cases from UML activity diagrams complementing specification of use cases. Test cases are prioritized according to software risk information. Results from experiences with more than 70 software professionals/experts validate benefits of the method. Participants also confirm its interest and effectiveness for testing needs of industry

UML in practice

UML has been described by some as “the lingua franca of software engineering”. Evidence from industry does not necessarily support such endorsements. How exactly is UML being used in industry – if it is? This paper presents a corpus of interviews with 50 professional software engineers in 50 companies and identifies 5 patterns of UML use

The effects of education on students' perception of modeling in software engineering

Models in software engineering bring significant potential in improvements of productivity of engineers, and improved quality of the artifacts they produce. Despite this significant potential, modeling adoption in practice remains rather low. Computer Science and software engineering curriculums may be one factor that causes this low adoption. In this study, we investigate the effects of education on students’ perception of modeling. We conducted a survey in three separate institutions, in Canada, Israel, and the U.S. The survey covers various aspects of modeling and addresses students ranging from a first year in undergraduate studies until final years in graduate studies. The survey’s findings suggest that the perception of undergraduate students towards modeling declines as they progress in their studies. While graduate students tend to be more favorable of modeling, their perception also declines over the years. The results also suggest that students prefer more modeling content to be integrated earlier in the curriculum

Business modeling in process-oriented organizations for RUP-based software development

Several organizations are nowadays not particularly comfortable with their internal structuring based on a hierarchical arrangement (sub-divided in departments), where collaborators with a limited view of the overall organization perform their activities. Those organizations recognize the need to move to a model where multi-skilled teams run horizontal business processes that cross the organization, and impact suppliers and clients. To develop software systems for any organization, the development process must always be appropriate and controlled. Additionally for organizations who want to migrate to a horizontal business processes view, it is required to model the organizational platform where the organizational processes will run. This necessity is also true when the organization under consideration is a software house. In this chapter, a proposal of a generic framework for process-oriented software houses is presented. The way of managing the process model and the instantiation of their processes with the Rational Unified Process (RUP) disciplines, whenever they are available, or with other kind of processes is recommended as a way to control and define the software development process. To illustrate the usefulness of the proposal, it is presented how the generic reference framework was executed in a real project called “Premium Wage” and shown, in some detail, the created artifacts (which include several UML models) during the development phases following the RUP disciplines, especially the artifacts produced for business modeling.(undefined

Ontology-driven conceptual modeling: A'systematic literature mapping and review

All rights reserved. Ontology-driven conceptual modeling (ODCM) is still a relatively new research domain in the field of information systems and there is still much discussion on how the research in ODCM should be performed and what the focus of this research should be. Therefore, this article aims to critically survey the existing literature in order to assess the kind of research that has been performed over the years, analyze the nature of the research contributions and establish its current state of the art by positioning, evaluating and interpreting relevant research to date that is related to ODCM. To understand and identify any gaps and research opportunities, our literature study is composed of both a systematic mapping study and a systematic review study. The mapping study aims at structuring and classifying the area that is being investigated in order to give a general overview of the research that has been performed in the field. A review study on the other hand is a more thorough and rigorous inquiry and provides recommendations based on the strength of the found evidence. Our results indicate that there are several research gaps that should be addressed and we further composed several research opportunities that are possible areas for future research

Implementing ALiS: Towards a Reference Architecture for Augmented Living Spaces

Augmented reality (AR) is currently discussed as an approach to promote the personal health of elderly and cognitively impaired people, with spatial AR being a promising, wearable-less solution to enable. an augmented living space (ALiS) that immersively provides and communicates individual, needs-oriented functionalities in the areas of perception, mobility, organization, and medicine. To address the knowledge gap of missing knowledge concerning the implementation of such assistance systems that support autonomy in everyday life, we derived a reference architecture (RA) based on an existing design theory. Our RA contains UML diagrams for components and sequence flows, accompanying text descriptions, and a user interface design. We successfully implemented a prototype to show the RAs feasibility and conducted an expert survey for its general usefulness with positive results. Our contributions add to the prescriptive knowledge base of the community as the results may be adapted by researchers and practitioners

A model-driven method for the systematic literature review of qualitative empirical research

This paper explores a model-driven method for systematic literature reviews (SLRs), for use where the empirical studies found in the literature search are based on qualitative research. SLRs are an important component of the evidence-based practice (EBP) paradigm, which is receiving increasing attention in information systems (IS) but has not yet been widely-adopted. We illustrate the model-driven approach to SLRs via an example focused on the use of BPMN (Business Process Modelling Notation) in organizations. We discuss in detail the process followed in using the model-driven SLR method, and show how it is based on a hermeneutic cycle of reading and interpreting, in order to develop and refine a model which synthesizes the research findings of previous qualitative studies. This study can serve as an exemplar for other researchers wishing to carry out model-driven SLRs. We conclude with our reflections on the method and some suggestions for further researc

The effects of UML modeling on the quality of software

As the de facto industry standard for software modeling, the Unified Modeling Language (UML) is used widely across various IT domains. UML__s wide acceptance is partly because the language offers flexibility and freedom in modeling software systems: 1) UML provides an extensive set of modeling notations that can be used to model various concepts; 2) UML can be used both in a casual and formal manners. In the context of model-driven software development, the degree of freedom in which UML is used raises an important issue related to model quality. Different styles and rigors in using UML affect the quality of the resulting models. It is then logical to think that the level of quality of the UML model may affect the quality of the resulting software. This thesis reports on a series of empirical studies performed to address a pivotal question concerning the benefits of UML modeling in software development, particularly from a quality perspective. The results of these empirical studies show that the use of UML provides benefits in terms of increased quality and productivity in software development. The availability of UML models also allows early prediction of defects in software systems. Such prediction is potentially useful for identifying and fixing defects early during software development, and for prioritizing testing.STWUBL - phd migration 201