Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Assessing the Influence of Stereotypes on the Comprehension of UML Sequence Diagrams: A Controlled Experiment

  • Conference paper
Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS 2008)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 5301))

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to provide empirical evidence, through a controlled experiment, of the influence of stereotypes when modelers, developers, and maintainers have to comprehend UML sequence diagrams. The comprehension of UML sequence diagrams with and without stereotypes was analyzed from three different perspectives: semantic comprehension, retention and transfer. The experiment was carried out with 77 fourth year undergraduate students of Computer Science from the University of Bari in Italy. The results obtained show a slight tendency in favor of the use of stereotypes in facilitating the comprehension of UML sequence diagrams, although it is not statistically significant. Further replications are needed to obtain more conclusive results.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Basili, V., Rombach, H.: The TAME Project: Towards Improvement-oriented Software Environments. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 14(6), 758–773 (1988)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Basili, V., Shull, F., Lanubile, F.: Building Knowledge through Families of Experiments. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 25, 456–473 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Basili, V., Weiss, D.: A Methodology for Collecting Valid Software Engineering Data. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 10(6), 728–738 (1984)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Bodart, F., Patel, A., Sim, M., Weber, R.: Should Optimal Properties Be Used in Conceptual Modelling? Theory and Three Empirical Tests. Information Systems Research 12(4), 384–405 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Conallen, J.: Building Web Applications with UML. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Cruz-Lemus, J.A., Genero, M., Morasca, S., Piattini, M.: Using Practitioners for Assessing the Understandability of UML Statechart Diagrams with Composite States. In: Hainaut, J.-L., Rundensteiner, E.A., Kirchberg, M., Bertolotto, M., Brochhausen, M., Chen, Y.-P.P., Cherfi, S.S.-S., Doerr, M., Han, H., Hartmann, S., Parsons, J., Poels, G., Rolland, C., Trujillo, J., Yu, E., Zimányie, E. (eds.) ER Workshops 2007. LNCS, vol. 4802, pp. 213–222. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  7. Eriksson, H.E., Penker, M.: UML Toolkit. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Gemino, A., Wand, Y.: Complexity and Clarity in Conceptual Modeling: Comparison of Mandatory and Optional Properties. Data and Knowledge Engineering 55, 301–326 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Genero, M., Manso, M.E., Visaggio, A., Canfora, G., Piattini, M.: Building Measure-Based Prediction Models for UML Class Diagram Maintainability. Empirical Software Engineering 12, 517–549 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Insfran, E.: A Requirements Engineering Approach for Object-Oriented Conceptual Modeling. In: DSIC 2003, University of Technology of Valencia

    Google Scholar 

  11. Insfran, E., Pastor, P., Wieringa, R.: Requirements Engineering-based Conceptual Modeling. Journal of Requirements Engineering 7(2), 61–72 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Jacobson, I., Christerson, M., Jonsson, P., Overgaard, G.: Object-Oriented Software Engineering, a Use Case-driven Approach. Addison-Wesley, Reading (1992)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  13. Juristo, N., Moreno, A.: Basics of Software Engineering Experimentation. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht (2001)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  14. Kirk, R.E.: Experimental Design: Procedures for the Behavioral Sciences, 3rd edn. Brooks/Cole Publishing Company (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Lange, C.F.J., Chaudron, M.R.V.: Interactive Views to Improve the Comprehension of UML Models - An Experimental Validation. In: Proceedings of 15th IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC 2007), Banff, Canada, pp. 221–230 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Larman, C.: Applying UML and Patterns. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Mayer, R.E.: Models for Understanding. Review of Educational Research 59(1), 43–64 (1989)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Mayer, R.E.: Multimedia Learning. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  19. OMG, UML 2.1 Unified Modeling Language (TM) (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Otero, M.C., Dolado, J.J.: Evaluation of the Comprehension of the Dynamic Modeling in UML. Information and Software Technology 46(1), 35–53 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Purchase, H.C., Colpoys, L., McGill, M., Carrington, D.: UML Collaboration Diagram Syntax: an Empirical Study of Comprehension. In: Proceedings of 1st International Workshop on Visualizing Software for Understanding and Analysis (VISSOFT 2002), Paris, France, pp. 13–22 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Purchase, H.C., Colpoys, L., McGill, M., Carrington, D., Britton, C.: UML Class Diagram Syntax: an Empirical Study of Comprehension. In: Proceedings of Australian Symposium on Information Visualisation, Sydney, Australia, pp. 113–120 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Reinhartz-Berger, H., Dori, D.: OPM vs. UML - Experimenting with Comprehension and Construction of Web Application Models. Empirical Software Engineering 10, 57–79 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Ricca, F., Di Penta, M., Torchiano, M., Tonella, P., Ceccato, M.: The Role of Experience and Ability in Comprehension Tasks supported by UML Stereotypes. In: Proceedings of 29th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2007), Minneapolis, USA, pp. 375–384 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Selic, B.: The Pragmatics of Model-Driven Development. IEEE Software 20(5), 19–25 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. SPSS, SPSS 12.0, Syntax Reference Guide, Chicago, USA. SPSS Inc. (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Staron, M., Kuzniarz, L., Wohlin, C.: Empirical Assessment of Using Stereotypes to Improve Comprehension of UML Models: a Set of Experiments. The Journal of Systems and Software 79, 727–742 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Winer, B.J., Brown, D.R., Michels, K.M.: Statistical Principles in Experimental Design. McGraw-Hill, New York (1991)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Wohlin, C., Runeson, P., Hast, M., Ohlsson, M.C., Regnell, B., Wesslen, A.: Experimentation in Software Engineering: an Introduction. Kluwer Academic Publisher, Dordrecht (2000)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  30. Xie, S., Kraemer, E., Stirewalt, R.E.K.: Empirical Evaluation of a UML Sequence Diagram with Adornments to Support Understanding of Thread Interactions. In: Proceedings of 15th IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC 2007), Banff, Canada, pp. 123–134 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ALARCOS Research Group, Department of Technologies and Information Systems, University of Castilla-La Mancha Paseo de la Universidad, 4 13071, Ciudad Real, Spain

    Marcela Genero & José A. Cruz-Lemus

  2. Department of Informatics, University of Bari, Via E. Orabona, 4 70126, Bari, Italy

    Danilo Caivano

  3. ISSI Research Group Department of Information Systems and Computation Universidad Politécnica de Valencia Camino de Vera, s/n 46022, Valencia, Spain

    Silvia Abrahão, Emilio Insfran & José A. Carsí

Authors
  1. Marcela Genero
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. José A. Cruz-Lemus
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Danilo Caivano
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Silvia Abrahão
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Emilio Insfran
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. José A. Carsí
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Krzysztof Czarnecki Ileana Ober Jean-Michel Bruel Axel Uhl Markus Völter

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Genero, M., Cruz-Lemus, J.A., Caivano, D., Abrahão, S., Insfran, E., Carsí, J.A. (2008). Assessing the Influence of Stereotypes on the Comprehension of UML Sequence Diagrams: A Controlled Experiment. In: Czarnecki, K., Ober, I., Bruel, JM., Uhl, A., Völter, M. (eds) Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems. MODELS 2008. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5301. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87875-9_20

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87875-9_20

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-87874-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-87875-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation