Applying UML/MARTE on industrial projects: challenges, experiences, and guidelines

in Software and Systems Modeling (2014)

Assessing Quality and Effort of Applying Aspect State Machines for Robustness Testing: A Controlled Experiment

in IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification, and Validation, Luxembourg (2013)

Does aspect-oriented modeling help improve the readability of UML state machines?

in Software and Systems Modeling (2012)

Aspect-oriented modeling (AOM) is a relatively recent and very active field of research, whose application has, however, been limited in practice. AOM is assumed to yield several potential benefits such ... [more ▼]

Aspect-oriented modeling (AOM) is a relatively recent and very active field of research, whose application has, however, been limited in practice. AOM is assumed to yield several potential benefits such as enhanced modularization, easier evolution, increased reusability, and improved readability of models, as well as reduced modeling effort. However, credible, solid empirical evidence of such benefits is lacking. We evaluate the “readability” of state machines when modeling crosscutting behavior using AOM and more specifically AspectSM, a recently published UML profile. This profile extends the UML state machine notation with mechanisms to define aspects using state machines. Readability is indirectly measured through defect identification and fixing rates in state machines, and the scores obtained when answering a comprehension questionnaire about the system behavior. With AspectSM, crosscutting behavior is modeled using so-called “aspect state machines”. Their readability is compared with that of system state machines directly modeling crosscutting and standard behavior together. An initial controlled experiment and a much larger replication were conducted with trained graduate students, in two different institutions and countries, to achieve the above objective. We use two baselines of comparisons—standard UML state machines without hierarchical features (flat state machines) and standard state machines with hierarchical/concurrent features (hierarchical state machines). The results showed that defect identification and fixing rates are significantly better with AspectSM than with both flat and hierarchical state machines. However, in terms of comprehension scores and inspection effort, no significant difference was observed between any of the approaches. Results of the experiments suggest that one should use, when possible, aspect state machines along with hierarchical and/or concurrent features of UML state machines to model crosscutting behaviors. [less ▲]

Experiences of applying UML/MARTE on three industrial projects

in ACM/IEEE 15th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages & Systems (2012)

A Product Line Modeling and Configuration Methodology to Support Model-based Testing: An Industrial Case Study

in ACM/IEEE 15th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages & Systems (2012)

Product Line Engineering (PLE) is expected to enhance quality and productivity, speed up time-to-market and decrease development effort, through reuse—the key mechanism of PLE. In addition, one can also ... [more ▼]

Product Line Engineering (PLE) is expected to enhance quality and productivity, speed up time-to-market and decrease development effort, through reuse—the key mechanism of PLE. In addition, one can also apply PLE to support systematic testing and more specifically model-based testing (MBT) of product lines—the original motivation behind this work. MBT has shown to be cost-effective in many industry sectors but at the expense of building models of the system under test (SUT). However, the modeling effort to support MBT can significantly be reduced if an adequate product line modeling and configuration methodology is followed, which is the main motivation of this paper. The initial motivation for this work emerged while working with MBT for a Video Conferencing product line at Cisco Systems, Norway. In this paper, we report on our experience in modeling product family models and various types of behavioral variability in the Saturn product line. We focus on behavioral variability in UML state machines since the Video Conferencing Systems (VCSs) exhibit strong state-based behavior and these models are the main drivers for MBT; however, the approach can be also tailored to other UML diagrams. We also provide a mechanism to specify and configure various types of variability using stereotypes and Aspect-Oriented Modeling (AOM). Results of applying our methodology to the Saturn product line modeling and configuration process show that the effort required for modeling and configuring products of the product line family can be significantly reduced. [less ▲]