A survey on UML model smells detection techniques for software refactoring

Abstract

Bad smells tend to have a negative impact on software by degrading its quality. It is beneficial to detect model smells to avoid their propagation to later stages of software development. The objective of this paper is to present the state‐of‐the‐art research on techniques for detecting UML model bad smells. The detection techniques are compared and evaluated using a proposed evaluation framework. The framework consists of two parts. The first part of the framework compares the techniques in terms of the implemented approach, the investigated model, and the explored model smells, while the experimental design is explored in the second part of the framework. We found that the detection of bad smells in class and sequence diagrams is accomplished via design patterns, software metrics, and predefined rules, while model smells in use cases are detected using metrics and predefined rules. We also found that the class diagram is the most investigated UML model in the context of model smell detection, whereas there is a lack of work on other UML models. In addition, there is a scarcity of independent studies on sequence diagrams. Furthermore, the studies investigating class diagrams are mostly validated, whereas use case diagrams and sequence diagrams are rarely validated.

Conceptual model visual simulation and the inductive learning of missing domain constraints

“…(3) there is a Junior Detective who teams up with himself/herself and does not team up with any other Junior Detective; (4) there is a Detective who is both Senior Detective and Lead Detective, but not Superintendent; (5) there is a Junior Detective who teams up with another Junior Detective who is not managed by the same Senior Detective; (6) there is a Criminal Investigation in which a Detective investigates herself ; (7) there is a Criminal Investigation in which a Detective is also a Witness; (8) there is a Criminal Investigation in which a Suspect is also a Witness; (9) there is a Criminal Investigation that is led by a Detective who does not participate in it ; (10) there is an Interrogation that questions a Witness who is not involved in the Criminal Investigation the Interrogation contributes to; (11) there is an Interrogation that is conducted by a Detective who is not involved in the Criminal Investigation the Interrogation contributes to.…”

“…This is because, among other factors, modeling is a complex task, which requires a level of expertise that practitioners often lack [2][3][4]. Therefore, it is not surprising that, in recent years, the difficulty of designing conceptual models has been investigated in several contributions [5][6][7][8] within the information systems engineering community.…”

Software Code Refactoring: A Comprehensive Review

“…Refactoring improves the process of software development through by making programs more comprehensible, making software bugs easier to identify, and speeding up development. Refactoring, according to numerous researchers, could take place at the design, code, or requirement levels [5] [6] .…”

Identifying Key Characteristics of Business Rules That Affect Software Project Success

“…The impact of BR on enterprise software implementation project success has been argued in several software disciplines, such as requirements specification [3][4][5][6], software quality assurance [7], software evolution [8], business modelling [9,10], etc. Moreover, Lal [4] claims that BR are relevant to the entire software project life cycle.…”