Measuring the Comprehensibility of a UML-B model and a B model
Measuring the Comprehensibility of a UML-B model and a B model
Software maintenance, which involves making enhancements, modifications and corrections to existing software systems, consumes more than half of developer time. Specification comprehensibility plays an important role in software maintenance as it permits the understanding of the system properties more easily and quickly. The use of formal notation such as B increases a specification’s precision and consistency. However, the notation is regarded as being difficult to comprehend. Semi-formal notation such as the Unified Modelling Language (UML) is regarded as more accessible but it lacks formality. Perhaps by combining both notations could produce a specification that is not only accurate and consistent but also accessible to users. This paper presents an experiment conducted on a model that integrates the use of both UML and B notations, namely UML-B, versus a B model alone. The objective of the experiment was to evaluate the comprehensibility of a UML-B model compared to a traditional B model. The measurement used in the evaluation focused on the efficiency in performing the comprehension tasks. The experiment employed a cross-over design and was conducted on forty-one subjects, including undergraduate and masters students. The results show that the notation used in the UML-B model is more comprehensible than the B model.
model comprehensibility, formal and semi-formal notation, empirical assessment
338-343
Razali, Rozilawati
2fb86046-b68e-4537-9d75-42a36364f40c
Garratt, Paul W
949a7e95-1648-47e6-85a0-a526dfa98f8e
2006
Razali, Rozilawati
2fb86046-b68e-4537-9d75-42a36364f40c
Garratt, Paul W
949a7e95-1648-47e6-85a0-a526dfa98f8e
Razali, Rozilawati and Garratt, Paul W
(2006)
Measuring the Comprehensibility of a UML-B model and a B model.
Enformatika, Vol 16, .
Abstract
Software maintenance, which involves making enhancements, modifications and corrections to existing software systems, consumes more than half of developer time. Specification comprehensibility plays an important role in software maintenance as it permits the understanding of the system properties more easily and quickly. The use of formal notation such as B increases a specification’s precision and consistency. However, the notation is regarded as being difficult to comprehend. Semi-formal notation such as the Unified Modelling Language (UML) is regarded as more accessible but it lacks formality. Perhaps by combining both notations could produce a specification that is not only accurate and consistent but also accessible to users. This paper presents an experiment conducted on a model that integrates the use of both UML and B notations, namely UML-B, versus a B model alone. The objective of the experiment was to evaluate the comprehensibility of a UML-B model compared to a traditional B model. The measurement used in the evaluation focused on the efficiency in performing the comprehension tasks. The experiment employed a cross-over design and was conducted on forty-one subjects, including undergraduate and masters students. The results show that the notation used in the UML-B model is more comprehensible than the B model.
More information
Published date: 2006
Additional Information:
Event Dates: 24-26 November 2006
Venue - Dates:
International Conference on Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE 2006), Venice, Italy, 2006-11-24 - 2006-11-26
Keywords:
model comprehensibility, formal and semi-formal notation, empirical assessment
Organisations:
Electronic & Software Systems
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 263243
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/263243
PURE UUID: 3b81e05a-6f1a-4d80-a656-602e0646125f
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 12 Dec 2006
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 23:14
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Contributors
Author:
Rozilawati Razali
Author:
Paul W Garratt
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