Generating natural language specifications from UML class diagrams

Early phases of software development are known to be problematic, difficult to manage and errors occurring during these phases are expensive to correct. Many systems have been developed to aid the transition from informal Natural Language requirements to semistructured or formal specifications. Furthermore, consistency checking is seen by many software engineers as the solution to reduce the number of errors occurring during the software development life cycle and allow early verification and validation of software systems. However, this is confined to the models developed during analysis and design and fails to include the early Natural Language requirements. This excludes proper user involvement and creates a gap between the original requirements and the updated and modified models and implementations of the system. To improve this process, we propose a system that generates Natural Language specifications from UML class diagrams. We first investigate the variation of the input language used in naming the components of a class diagram based on the study of a large number of examples from the literature and then develop rules for removing ambiguities in the subset of Natural Language used within UML. We use WordNet,a linguistic ontology, to disambiguate the lexical structures of the UML string names and generate semantically sound sentences. Our system is developed in Java and is tested on an independent though academic case study

Incremental UML for Agile development: embedding UML class models in source code

Agile methods favor "working software over comprehensive documentation." The latter presumably includes Unified Modeling Language. UML is expensive to maintain, and it lacks good drill-down mechanisms, however, UML affords very useful visualizations. This paper describes a discipline for incrementally embedding graphical UML class models within source code for continuous agile development. The approach consists of identifying a main function, and having it drive the piece-wise creation of UML by explicitly including in its postconditions the placement of functions corresponding directly to requirements. The approach thus introduces higher order pre-and postconditions. A specific process is provided for carrying this out, together with examples. It enables UML class model visualization in rapid development, especially when tool-supported

An Exploratory Study of Forces and Frictions affecting Large-Scale Model-Driven Development

In this paper, we investigate model-driven engineering, reporting on an exploratory case-study conducted at a large automotive company. The study consisted of interviews with 20 engineers and managers working in different roles. We found that, in the context of a large organization, contextual forces dominate the cognitive issues of using model-driven technology. The four forces we identified that are likely independent of the particular abstractions chosen as the basis of software development are the need for diffing in software product lines, the needs for problem-specific languages and types, the need for live modeling in exploratory activities, and the need for point-to-point traceability between artifacts. We also identified triggers of accidental complexity, which we refer to as points of friction introduced by languages and tools. Examples of the friction points identified are insufficient support for model diffing, point-to-point traceability, and model changes at runtime.Comment: To appear in proceedings of MODELS 2012, LNCS Springe

Implementation of XpertMalTyph: An Expert System for Medical Diagnosis of the Complications of Malaria and Typhoid

The dearth of medical experts in the developing world has subjected a large percentage of its populace to preventable ailments and deaths. Also, because of the predominant rural communities, the few medical experts that are available always opt for practice in the few urban cities. This consequently puts the rural communities at a disadvantage with respect to access to quality health care services. In this work, we designed and implemented XpertMalTyph; a novel medical diagnostic expert system for the various kinds of malaria and typhoid complications. A medical diagnostic expert system uses computer(s) to simulate medical doctor skills in diagnosis of ailments and prescription of treatments, hence can be used to provide the same service in the absence of the experts. XpertMalTyph is based on JESS (Java Expert System Shell) programming because of its robust inference engine and rules for implementing expert system

A model driven approach to building implementable model transformations

The OMG's Model Driven Architecture (MDA) initiative has been the focus of much attention in both academia and industry, due to its promise of more rapid and consistent software development through the increased use of models. In order for MDA to reach its full potential, the ability to manipulate and transform models { most obviously from the Platform Independent Model (PIM) to the Platform Specifc Models (PSM) { is vital. Recognizing this need, the OMG issued a Request For Proposals (RFP) largely concerned with finding a suitable mechanism for transforming models. This paper outlines the relevant background material, summarizes the approach taken by the QVT-Partners (to whom the authors belong), presents a non-trivial example using the QVT-Partners approach, and finally sketches out what the future holds for model transformations