Level of detail in UML models and its impact on model comprehension: A controlled experiment

Nugroho, Ariadi

doi:10.1016/j.infsof.2009.04.007

Cited by 58 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…The results obtained are not significant owing to various factors such as the fact that the subjects selected had a low level of experience in using UML and JAVA code, and the small size of the group of subjects who participated in the experiment. It is only possible to observe a slight tendency towards obtaining better results with low LoD diagrams, contrary to the results obtained in [8].…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 95%

“…Although we cannot draw conclusive results on the main factor (LoD), we have found that cofactors (system, order) have not influenced the results. Nevertheless, the descriptive statistics in general showed a slight tendency in favor of using low LoD diagrams in contrary to what we believed, as the diagrams with a high LoD helped developers in the software development stage [8]. This may result from the fact that the subjects did not have the expected amount of knowledge about UML (a mean of 8.8 correct answers out of 16 questions) and JAVA (a mean of 4.9 correct answers out of 9 questions) tested in the background questionnaire.…”

Section: 6contrasting

confidence: 99%

“…We found a paper [8] focused on the understandability of models with different LoD in the development phase. The results show a better understanding of models when they have a high LoD.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Does the Level of Detail of UML Models Affect the Maintainability of Source Code?

Fernández-Sáez

Genero

Chaudron

2012

Models in Software Engineering

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Abstract. This paper presents an experiment carried out as a pilot study to obtain a first insight into the influence of the quality of UML models on the maintenance of the corresponding source code. The quality of the UML models is assessed by studying the amount of information they contain as measured through a level of detail metric. The experiment was carried out with 11 Computer Science students from the University of Leiden. The results obtained indicate a slight tendency towards obtaining better results when using low level of detail UML models, which contradicts our expectations based on previous research found in literature. Nevertheless, we are conscious that the results should be considered as preliminary results given the low number of subjects that participated in the experiment. Further replications of this experiment are planned with students and professionals in order to obtain more conclusive results.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 95%

Section: 6contrasting

confidence: 99%

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Does the Level of Detail of UML Models Affect the Maintainability of Source Code?

Fernández-Sáez

Genero

Chaudron

2012

Models in Software Engineering

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“…The results indicate improved accuracy in solving comprehension tasks when having clustered layouts. Similarly, the experiment presented in [26] focuses on how the level of detail in UML models impacts model comprehension. The results show an improved effect of the level of detail on the comprehension of UML models.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of using examples on structural model comprehension: a controlled experiment

Zayan

Antkiewicz

Czarnecki

2014

Proceedings of the 36th International Conference on Software Engineering

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We present a controlled experiment for the empirical evaluation of Example-Driven Modeling (EDM), an approach that systematically uses examples for model comprehension and domain knowledge transfer. We conducted the experiment with 26 graduate and undergraduate students from electrical and computer engineering (ECE), computer science (CS), and software engineering (SE) programs at the University of Waterloo. The experiment involves a domain model, with UML class diagrams representing the domain abstractions and UML object diagrams representing examples of using these abstractions. The goal is to provide empirical evidence of the effects of suitable examples in model comprehension, compared to having model abstractions only, by having the participants perform model comprehension tasks. Our results show that EDM is superior to having model abstractions only, with an improvement of 39% for diagram completeness, 30% for questions completeness, 71% for efficiency, and a reduction of 80% for the number of mistakes. We provide qualitative results showing that participants receiving model abstractions augmented with examples experienced lower perceived difficulty in performing the comprehension tasks, higher perceived confidence in their tasks' solutions, and asked fewer clarifying domain questions, a reduction of 90%. We also present participants' feedback regarding the usefulness of the provided examples, their number and types, as well as, the use of partial examples.

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“…Moreover, diagrams with a high level of detail are reported to be more helpful during software development [14], while those with a low level of detail seems to be better when performing maintenance tasks [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are Forward Designed or Reverse-Engineered UML diagrams more helpful for code maintenance?: A family of experiments

Fernández-Sáez

Genero

Chaudron

et al. 2015

Information and Software Technology

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Context: Although various success stories of model-based approaches are reported in literature, there is still a significant resistance to model-based development in many software organizations because the UML is perceived to be expensive and not necessarily cost-effective. It is also important to gather empirical evidence in which context and under which conditions the UML makes or does not make a practical difference. Objective: Our objective is to provide empirical evidence as to which UML diagrams are more helpful during software maintenance: Forward Designed (FD) UML diagrams or Reverse Engineered (RE) UML diagrams. Method: We carried out a family of experiments which consisted of one experiment and two replications with a total of 169 Computer Science undergraduate students. Results: The individual data analysis and the meta-analysis conducted on the whole family, show a tendency in favor of FD diagrams and are significantly different as regards the effectiveness and efficiency of the subjects who participated and played the role of maintainers. The analysis of the qualitative data, collected using a post-experiment survey, reveals that the subjects did not consider RE diagrams helpful. Conclusions: Our findings show that there are some objective results (descriptive statistics or statistical tests) related to the maintenance effectiveness and efficiency in favor of the use of FD UML diagrams during software maintenance. Subjective opinions also lead us to recommend the use of UML diagrams (especially class diagrams) created during the design phase for software maintenance because they improve the understanding of the system in comparison with RE diagrams. Nevertheless, we can only assume that these results are valid in the context of Computer Science undergraduate students when working with small systems related to well-known domains, and other contexts should be explored in order to reaffirm the results in an industrial context by carrying out replications with professionals.

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Level of detail in UML models and its impact on model comprehension: A controlled experiment

Cited by 58 publications

References 17 publications

Does the Level of Detail of UML Models Affect the Maintainability of Source Code?

Does the Level of Detail of UML Models Affect the Maintainability of Source Code?

Effects of using examples on structural model comprehension: a controlled experiment

Are Forward Designed or Reverse-Engineered UML diagrams more helpful for code maintenance?: A family of experiments

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