Usability Assessment of a UML-Based Formal Modeling Method Using a Cognitive Dimensions Framework

Razali, Rozilawati; Snook, Colin; Poppleton, Michael; Garratt, P. W.

doi:10.17011/ht/urn.200804151351

“…Our work yields important insights into the difficulties that engineers face when trying to understand the implications that previous security incident reports have for their own organisations. There have been numerous empirical studies to evaluate the usability of graphical notations, including Entity-Relationship diagrams [44], UML [45,46] etc. However, as far as we are aware, there have been no previous studies to assess the strengths and weaknesses of graphical notations to help transfer the lessons learned from previous security incidents.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving the exchange of lessons learned in security incident reports: case studies in the privacy of electronic patient records

He

¹

,

Johnson

²

,

Yu

³

2015

J Trust Manag

2

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The increasing use of Electronic Health Records has been mirrored by a similar rise in the number of security incidents where confidential information has inadvertently been disclosed to third parties. These problems have been compounded by an apparent inability to learn from previous violations; similar security incidents have been observed across Europe, North America and Asia. This has resulted in the loss of confidence and trust of the public towards the organisations' ability to protect the patients' private information. The Generic Security Template (G.S.T.) has been proposed to communicate security lessons learned from previous security incidents. This paper conducts a series of empirical studies to evaluate the usability of the G.S.T. The first study compares the G.S.T. with the conventional text-based security incident reports. The two methods were compared in term of the users' ability to identify a number of lessons learned from investigations into previous incidents involving the disclosure of healthcare records. The study showed that the graphical approach resulted in higher accuracy in terms of number of correct answers generated by participants. However, subjective feedback raised further questions about the usability of the G.S.T. as the readers of security incident reports try to interpret the lessons that can increase the security of patient data. The second study further evaluates the usability of the G.S.T. using the Cognitive Dimensions and identifies some aspects that need to be improved.

show abstract

“…There have been numerous empirical studies to evaluate the usability of graphical notations, including Entity-Relationship diagrams [44], UML [45,46] etc. However, as far as we are aware, there have been no previous studies to assess the strengths and weaknesses of graphical notations to help transfer the lessons learned from previous security incidents.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving the Exchange of Lessons Learned in Security Incident Reports: Case Studies in the Privacy of Electronic Patient Records

He

¹

,

Johnson

²

,

Lyu

³

et al. 2014

IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The increasing use of Electronic Health Records has been mirrored by a similar rise in the number of security incidents where confidential information has inadvertently been disclosed to third parties. These problems have been compounded by an apparent inability to learn from previous violations; similar security incidents have been observed across Europe, North America and Asia. This has resulted in the loss of confidence and trust of the public towards the organisations' ability to protect the patients' private information. The Generic Security Template (G.S.T.) has been proposed to communicate security lessons learned from previous security incidents. This paper conducts a series of empirical studies to evaluate the usability of the G.S.T. The first study compares the G.S.T. with the conventional text-based security incident reports. The two methods were compared in term of the users' ability to identify a number of lessons learned from investigations into previous incidents involving the disclosure of healthcare records. The study showed that the graphical approach resulted in higher accuracy in terms of number of correct answers generated by participants. However, subjective feedback raised further questions about the usability of the G.S.T. as the readers of security incident reports try to interpret the lessons that can increase the security of patient data. The second study further evaluates the usability of the G.S.T. using the Cognitive Dimensions and identifies some aspects that need to be improved.

show abstract

“…UMLi also addresses the relationships between use cases, tasks, and views and thoroughly addresses the relationship between tasks and the data on which they act. In their survey conducted on a method that integrates the use of UML and a formal notation, Razali, Snook, Poppleton and Garratt (2008) showed that the method is accessible to users when the principles and roles of each notation are obvious and well understood and when there is strong support from the environment.…”

Section: The Ramses Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

RAMSES: A Method for the Design Process of Interactive Information Systems

Mouloudi

¹

,

Morizet‐Mahoudeaux

²

,

Annette

³

2011

International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This work presents a method that aims at structuring the design process of interactive information systems (IIS). This method, which takes parts of its ground in the joint cognitive systems approach, formalizes the integration of usage data in the design process of IIS. Data are generated by using methods of activity analysis. The assumption is that for integrating usage data successfully, they must be represented in a formalism close to the development language, while maintaining the formalization language accessible to each domain specialist involved in the design process. The method can be split up into in five steps: (a) data collection of users' needs in different contexts, (b) representation of the collected data, (c) modeling of corresponding knowledge in an implementation formalism, (d) specification of the IIS, and (e) validation of the model by a functional specification aid tool. A functional specification design tool has been developed according to the presented approach, and has been applied to the design of a traveler information system.

show abstract

Usability Assessment of a UML-Based Formal Modeling Method Using a Cognitive Dimensions Framework

Cited by 7 publications

References 56 publications

Improving the exchange of lessons learned in security incident reports: case studies in the privacy of electronic patient records

Improving the exchange of lessons learned in security incident reports: case studies in the privacy of electronic patient records

Improving the Exchange of Lessons Learned in Security Incident Reports: Case Studies in the Privacy of Electronic Patient Records

RAMSES: A Method for the Design Process of Interactive Information Systems

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About