Exploring the effect of UML modeling on software quality

Modeling ones design is generally considered good practice in the process of software development. Numerous payoffs are attributed to this practice, in-cluding increased software quality and easier software maintenance. However, empirical studies validating these payoffs are scarce. This validation should nevertheless be considered very important, since models do not represent any value by themselves. Therefore, only when payoffs have been shown to exist, should a company be willing to invest time and resources into creating these models. The de facto standard for communicating a system’s design is the Unified Modeling Language (UML). In this study we explore the relation between the level of detail of a system’s UML diagrams – specifically class, sequence and state diagrams – and the defect density and average defect repair time of the resulting implementation. We did this by performing two case studies, both in an industrial setting, applying different approaches for each of them. For both approaches definitions were formulated on how to record UML level of detail measures of the mentioned diagram types. While the first ap-proach used qualitative rankings, the second applied design metrics to quantify this detail level. Defect samples were manually inspected to try to relate each defect to parts of the UML models. During this process the defects were also typed, so that analyses could be performed using both the entire set of defects and specific defect types when required. To facilitate this defect typing task, defect taxonomies were compiled from the ones found in scientific literature and further tailored to the needs of this study. The results from our case studies show evidence supporting the suggested payoffs: the availability of UML models lowers defect density and average re-pair time. However, some questions regarding validity of this evidence remain.

Detecting Functional Requirements Inconsistencies within Multi-teams Projects Framed into a Model-based Web Methodology

One of the most essential processes within the software project life cycle is the REP (Requirements Engineering Process) because it allows specifying the software product requirements. This specification should be as consistent as possible because it allows estimating in a suitable manner the effort required to obtain the final product. REP is complex in itself, but this complexity is greatly increased in big, distributed and heterogeneous projects with multiple analyst teams and high integration between functional modules. This paper presents an approach for the systematic conciliation of functional requirements in big projects dealing with a web model-based approach and how this approach may be implemented in the context of the NDT (Navigational Development Techniques): a web methodology. This paper also describes the empirical evaluation in the CALIPSOneo project by analyzing the improvements obtained with our approach.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2013-46928-C3-3-RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2015-71938-RED

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

Workshop proceedings of the 1st workshop on quality in modeling

Quality assessment and assurance constitute an important part of software engineering. The issues of software quality management are widely researched and approached from multiple perspectives and viewpoints. The introduction of a new paradigm in software development – namely Model Driven Development (MDD) and its variations (e.g., MDA [Model Driven Architecture], MDE [Model Driven Engineering], MBD [Model Based Development], MIC [Model Integrated Computing]) – raises new challenges in software quality management, and as such should be given a special attention. In particular, the issues of early quality assessment, based on models at a high abstraction level, and building (or customizing the existing) prediction models for software quality based on model metrics are of central importance for the software engineering community. The workshop is continuation of a series of workshops on consistency that have taken place during the subsequent annual UML conferences and recently MDA-FA. The idea behind this workshop is to extend the scope of interests and address a wide spectrum of problems related to MDD. It is also in line with the overall initiative of the shift from UML to MoDELS. The goal of this workshop is to gather researchers and practitioners interested in the emerging issues of quality in the context of MDD. The workshop is intended to provide a premier forum for discussions related to software quality and MDD. And the aims of the workshop are: - Presenting ongoing research related to quality in modeling in the context of MDD, - Defining and organizing issues related to quality in the MDD. The format of the workshop consists of two parts: presentation and discussion. The presentation part is aimed at reporting research results related to quality aspects in modeling. Seven papers were selected for the presentation out of 16 submissions; the selected papers are included in these proceedings. The discussion part is intended to be a forum for exchange of ideas related to understanding of quality and approaching it in a systematic way

Workshop proceedings of the 1st workshop on quality in modeling

Quality assessment and assurance constitute an important part of software engineering. The issues of software quality management are widely researched and approached from multiple perspectives and viewpoints. The introduction of a new paradigm in software development – namely Model Driven Development (MDD) and its variations (e.g., MDA [Model Driven Architecture], MDE [Model Driven Engineering], MBD [Model Based Development], MIC [Model Integrated Computing]) – raises new challenges in software quality management, and as such should be given a special attention. In particular, the issues of early quality assessment, based on models at a high abstraction level, and building (or customizing the existing) prediction models for software quality based on model metrics are of central importance for the software engineering community. The workshop is continuation of a series of workshops on consistency that have taken place during the subsequent annual UML conferences and recently MDA-FA. The idea behind this workshop is to extend the scope of interests and address a wide spectrum of problems related to MDD. It is also in line with the overall initiative of the shift from UML to MoDELS. The goal of this workshop is to gather researchers and practitioners interested in the emerging issues of quality in the context of MDD. The workshop is intended to provide a premier forum for discussions related to software quality and MDD. And the aims of the workshop are: - Presenting ongoing research related to quality in modeling in the context of MDD, - Defining and organizing issues related to quality in the MDD. The format of the workshop consists of two parts: presentation and discussion. The presentation part is aimed at reporting research results related to quality aspects in modeling. Seven papers were selected for the presentation out of 16 submissions; the selected papers are included in these proceedings. The discussion part is intended to be a forum for exchange of ideas related to understanding of quality and approaching it in a systematic way

Checking and improving business process models in BPMN2

Business Process Modeling (BPM) is a systems engineering activity where we rep- resent the processes of an enterprise, so they can be shared, understood and improved. Despite the set of innovative tools for BPM modelling that exist in the market, they allow modelers to introduce errors during the modelling process. As there is no idea which errors the tools do not detect, what are the most recurrent errors and how could this prob- lem be mitigated, this dissertation presents a study and a proposal to help solving this problem. Firstly, a tool survey was developed to describe the state of the practice on the ability of Modelling Tools to validate BPMN2 models and determine the most recurrent defects introduced by BPMN modellers. Secondly, based on an empirical study using the QUASAR validator we provide evidence on its ability to validate a set of well-formedness rules and best practices and therefore detect errors in BPMN2 Models. Finally, we want to understand if this metamodelling-based validation facility can be used to prevent intro- ducing modelling errors, while speeding up the learning curve.A Modelação de Processos de Negócio (MPN) é uma atividade de engenharia de sistemas onde representamos os processos de uma empresa, para que os mesmos possam ser partilhados, compreendidos e melhorados. Apesar do elevado número de ferramentas de MPN existentes no mercado, estas permitem aos modeladores introduzir erros du- rante o processo de modelação. Como não existe uma ideia clara acerca de quais os erros que as ferramentas não detetam, quais os erros cometidos mais recorrentemente e como o problema pode ser resolvido, esta dissertação apresenta um estudo e uma proposta para resolver o problema. Inicialmente foi efetuado um levantamento do estado da prática da capacidade das ferramentas de modelação para validar os modelos em BPMN2, e determinar os erros mais frequentemente introduzidos pelos modeladores. Em seguida, baseado num estudo empírico, usando o validador QUASAR, fornecemos evidências sobre a sua capacidade para validar o conjunto de regras de boa formação e boas práticas na modelação de processos de negócio e assim detetar os erros introduzidos nos modelos em BPMN2. Finalmente, queremos compreender se esta facilidade de validação baseada em metamodelos pode ser usada para prevenir a introdução de erros durante o processo de modelação de processos de negócio, acelerando assim a curva de aprendizagem do modelador