The Evaluation of Large, Complex UML Analysis and Design Models by Brian Berenbach 26th Internationa

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The Evaluation of Large, Complex UML Analysis and
Design Modelsby Brian Berenbach26th
International Conference on Software Engineering
(ICSE'04) May 23 - 28, 2004 Edinburgh,
Scotland, United Kingdom

• Poster by
• Faisal Zaman

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Basic Background Information

• The paper describes techniques for analyzing
  large UML models. It describes heuristic and
  processes for creating semantically correct UML
  analysis and design. It also describes the
  internal DesignAdvisor research tool that was
  used to analyze Siemens models.
• This paper showed the how to use UML guidelines
  and notations effectively to analyze and design
  complex models.

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Content of the Paper (cont.)

• The paper shows how UML notations and guidelines
  are used to analyze and design complex models.
• In the next few slides I will explain how to use
  UML notations for creating a verifiable analysis
  model.

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Content of the Paper (cont.)

• Model organization is key to performing
  programmatic verification and requirements
  extraction.
• The starting use case diagram should have only a
  single entry point in the form of an abstract
  use case (figure 1).
• Define scopes and identify out-of-scope domains.
• All the actors in the domain should be on a
  single diagram along with their relationship to
  their high level use cases.
• Avoid premature use of packaging.
• Package dependencies should be based on content.

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Content of the Paper (cont.)

• The key to extracting requirements from a UML
  model is proper use case organization and
  definition.
• Every concrete use case must be defined using one
  or more sequence, collaboration, activity or
  state diagrams.
• A use case diagram can include other use cases
  and can optionally be extended by other use cases.

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Content of the Paper (cont.)

• Use an activity diagram (figure 3) to show all
  possible scenarios associated with a use case.
• Using an activity diagram as an overview of the
  process makes it easier to identify important
  logic threads that need to be defined.

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Content of the Paper (cont.)

• Sequence diagrams (figure 4) force the early
  discovery of objects, their associated classes
  and business services.

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Content of the Paper (cont.)

• Use case relationships provide part of the
  infrastructure for an analysis model.
• Extending use case relationships can only exist
  between concrete use cases.
• A concrete use case cannot include an abstract
  use case because it causes ambiguity.
• Business object modeling is the process of
  describing the behavior of a domain with UML.
• Every service in a business object should have
  defined per- and post-conditions.
• Every actor in the model should communicate with
  use cases through interfaces.
• Initiate prototyping efforts after there are
  sufficient draft sequence diagrams to define
  actor/interface interactions.
• high-level sequence diagram is a compound object
  whereas low-level the object is decomposed into
  the objects that contribute to processes.

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Content of the Paper (cont.)

• Every class in the design model should trace back
  to a use case in the analysis model.
• The DesignAdvisor tool (in the following figure)
  was developed specifically to analyze and measure
  the goodness of large, complex UML models.

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Content of the Paper (cont.)

• Strengths
• The paper showed how UML can be used to
  effectively analyze and design large and complex
  model.
• The resulting model can be analyzed interactively
  by the modeler.
• How to create models that are programmatically
  verifiable.
• Weaknesses
• There is a weak emphasis about the transition
  between analysis phase and design phase.
• Some of the agile processes do not use UML
  notations but are quite effective and successful.

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Questions

• Are sequence diagrams help in early design
  decisions?
• Do we have to know all actors in a domain to
  effectively analyze and design models?
• Why activity diagram is important?