DocumentCode :
1928649
Title :
A controlled experiment on the impact of the object constraint language in UML-based maintenance
Author :
Briand, L.C. ; Labiche, Y. ; Yan, H.D. ; Di Penta, M.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Syst. & Comput. Eng., Carleton Univ., Ottawa, Ont., Canada
fYear :
2004
fDate :
11-14 Sept. 2004
Firstpage :
380
Lastpage :
389
Abstract :
The object constraint language (OCL) was introduced as part of the Unified Modeling Language (UML). Its main purpose is to make UML models more precise by providing a constraint language. For example, operation contracts and statechart guard conditions can be precisely defined using OCL. There has been an ongoing debate on the usefulness of using OCL in UML-based development, questioning whether the additional effort and formality were worth the benefit. This work presents the results of a controlled experiment that investigates the impact of using OCL on model comprehension and maintainability. Current results show that, once past an initial learning curve, significant benefits can be obtained by using OCL in combination with UML diagrams.
Keywords :
Unified Modeling Language; constraint handling; object-oriented languages; software maintenance; UML model; UML statechart; UML-based development; UML-based maintenance; Unified Modeling Language; object constraint language; Contracts; Cost benefit analysis; Drives; Laboratories; Logic; Software engineering; Software quality; Systems engineering and theory; Text analysis; Unified modeling language;
fLanguage :
English
Publisher :
ieee
Conference_Titel :
Software Maintenance, 2004. Proceedings. 20th IEEE International Conference on
ISSN :
1063-6773
Print_ISBN :
0-7695-2213-0
Type :
conf
DOI :
10.1109/ICSM.2004.1357823
Filename :
1357823
Link To Document :
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