What is a good textual representation of activity diagrams in requirements documents?

The use of graphical models has become a widely adopted approach to specify requirements of complex systems. Still, in practice, graphical models are often accompanied by textual descriptions to provide more detail, because of legal considerations, and to enable stakeholders with different backgrounds to understand a requirements document. One of our industry partners (Daimler AG) uses activity diagrams to specify vehicle functions in combination with a textual representation thereof in their requirements documents. Since graphical and textual representations serve different purposes, it is not obvious how textual representations of activity diagrams should be structured. In this paper, we present different textual representations of activity diagrams for use in requirements documents. The representation currently in use is presented as well as four alternatives. For each representation, we discuss advantages and disadvantages. To evaluate the representations, we asked five stakeholders of one system to create a preference ranking of the representations. The resulting ranking showed that the currently used representation is not considered to be the best possible option. The stakeholders’ favorite textual representation emphasizes structural similarity with the activity diagram, which however does not resemble the diagram’s structure exactly

Automating Test Case Generation for Android Applications using Model-based Testing

Testing of mobile applications (apps) has its quirks as numerous events are required to be tested. Mobile apps testing, being an evolving domain, carries certain challenges that should be accounted for in the overall testing process. Since smartphone apps are moderate in size so we consider that model-based testing (MBT) using state machines and statecharts could be a promising option for ensuring maximum coverage and completeness of test cases. Using model-based testing approach, we can automate the tedious phase of test case generation, which not only saves time of the overall testing process but also minimizes defects and ensures maximum test case coverage and completeness. In this paper, we explore and model the most critical modules of the mobile app for generating test cases to ascertain the efficiency and impact of using model-based testing. Test cases for the targeted model of the application under test were generated on a real device. The experimental results indicate that our framework reduced the time required to execute all the generated test cases by 50%. Experimental setup and results are reported herein

Potentially Polluting Marine Sites GeoDB: An S-100 Geospatial Database as an Effective Contribution to the Protection of the Marine Environment

Potentially Polluting Marine Sites (PPMS) are objects on, or areas of, the seabed that may release pollution in the future. A rationale for, and design of, a geospatial database to inventory and manipu-late PPMS is presented. Built as an S-100 Product Specification, it is specified through human-readable UML diagrams and implemented through machine-readable GML files, and includes auxiliary information such as pollution-control resources and potentially vulnerable sites in order to support analyses of the core data. The design and some aspects of implementation are presented, along with metadata requirements and structure, and a perspective on potential uses of the database

Visualization and user interactions in RDF data representation

The spreading of linked data in digital technologies creates the need to develop new approaches to handle this kind of data. The modern trends in the information technology encourage usage of human-friendly interfaces and graphical tools, which helps users to understand the system and speeds up the work processes. In this study my goal is to develop a set of best practices for solving the problem of visualizations and interactions with linked data and to create a working prototype based on this practices. My work is a part of a project developed by Fail-Safe IT Solutions Oy. During the research process I study various existing products that try to solve the problem of human-friendly interactions with linked data, compare them and based on the comparison develop my own approach for solving the problem in the given environment, which satisfies the provided specifications. The key findings of the research can be grouped in two categories. The first category of findings is based on the existing solution examinations and is related to the features I find beneficial to the project. The second category is based on the experience acquired during the project development and includes environment-specific and project-related findings

A Case Study in the Application of Model-Based Systems Engineering to Laboratory Research Science

This dissertation presents an exploration of the application of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) tools and methods to the design and execution of sophisticated laboratory experiments. An experiment to measure the first excited state diffusion coefficient, recently attempted by the author, is used as an example. Several MBSE analysis methods are applied, retrospectively, to the process by which the experiment in question was planned and executed. The potential for increased efficiency in managing the diverse types of information associated with such laboratory experiments is demonstrated, as well as possible further avenues for future research

Prevention of errors and user alienation in healthcare IT integration programmes

The design, development and implementation stages of integrated computer projects require close collaboration between users and developers, but this is particularly difficult where there are multiple specialties, organisations and system suppliers. Users become alienated if they are not consulted, but consultation is meaningless if they cannot understand the specifications showing exactly what is proposed. We need stringent specifications that users and developers can review and check before most of the work is done. Avoidable errors lead to delays and cost over-runs. The number of errors is a function of the likelihood of misunderstanding any part of the specification, the number of individuals involved and the number of choices or options. One way to reduce these problems is to provide a conceptual design specification, comprising detailed Unified Modelling Language (UML) class and activity diagrams, data definitions and terminology, in addition to conventional technology-specific specifications. A conceptual design specification needs to be straightforward to understand and use, transparent and unambiguous. People find structured diagrams, such as maps, charts and blueprints, easier to use than reports or tables. Other desirable properties include being technology independent, comprehensive, stringent, coherent, consistent, composed from reusable elements and computer-readable (XML). When users and developers share the same agreed conceptual design specification, this can be one of the master documents of a formal contract between the stakeholders. No extra meaning should be added during the later stages of the project life cycle

Law Modelling Using BPMN and DEMO

Cílem této práce je pomocí BPMN a DEMO nalézt způsoby jak lépe modelovat, vykonávat a optimalizovat zákony. Oba přístupy mají budoucnost v oblasti modelování zákonů. S pomocí DEMO jsem nalezla více než 300 chyb a nejasností v legislativním dokumentu. Modelování zákonů s pomocí DEMO a BPMN může usnadnit práci a přinést pochopení mnoha subjektům, kteří chtějí nebo potřebují právu rozumět a vylepšit je.The purpose of this thesis is to discover how to better model, execute and optimise laws with the help of BPMN and DEMO. Both techniques show promise for modelling laws. With the DEMO methodology, I've discovered over 300 errors and ambiguities of the legal document. Law modelling using DEMO and BPMN could prove useful to lawyers, governments, businesses and natural persons who want or need to better understand the law and improve it

A Web-Based Collaborative Multimedia Presentation Document System

With the distributed and rapidly increasing volume of data and expeditious development of modern web browsers, web browsers have become a possible legitimate vehicle for remote interactive multimedia presentation and collaboration, especially for geographically dispersed teams. To our knowledge, although there are a large number of applications developed for these purposes, there are some drawbacks in prior work including the lack of interactive controls of presentation flows, general-purpose collaboration support on multimedia, and efficient and precise replay of presentations. To fill the research gaps in prior work, in this dissertation, we propose a web-based multimedia collaborative presentation document system, which models a presentation as media resources together with a stream of media events, attached to associated media objects. It represents presentation flows and collaboration actions in events, implements temporal and spatial scheduling on multimedia objects, and supports real-time interactive control of the predefined schedules. As all events are represented by simple messages with an object-prioritized approach, our platform can also support fine-grained precise replay of presentations. Hundreds of kilobytes could be enough to store the events in a collaborative presentation session for accurate replays, compared with hundreds of megabytes in screen recording tools with a pixel-based replay mechanism

A case study on a specification approach using activity diagrams in requirements documents

Rising complexity of systems has long been a major challenge in requirements engineering. This manifests in more extensive and harder to understand requirements documents. At the Daimler AG, an approach is applied that combines the use of activity diagrams with natural language specifications to specify system functions. The approach starts with an activity diagram that is created to get an early overview. The contained information is then transferred to a textual requirements document, where details are added and the behavior is refined. While the approach aims to reduce efforts needed to understand a system’s behavior, the application of the approach itself causes new challenges on its own. By examining existing specifications at Daimler, we identified nine categories of inconsistencies and deviations between activity diagrams and their textual representations. In a case study, we examined one system in detail to assess how often these occur. In a follow-up survey, we presented instances of the categories to different stakeholders of the system and let them asses the categories regarding their severity. Our analysis indicates that a coexistence of textual and graphical representations of models without proper tool support results in inconsistencies and deviations that may cause severe maintenance costs or even provoke faults in subsequent development steps