UML Class Diagram Simplification - A Survey for Improving Reverse Engineered Class Diagram Comprehension

Hafeez Osman, Arjan van Zadelhoff, Michel R. V. Chaudron

2013

Abstract

Class diagrams may include an overwhelming amount of information. For a large and complex class diagrams there is a possibility that not all information in the class diagram is important for understanding the system. In this paper, we study how to identify essential and secondary information in class diagrams. To this end, we performed a survey with professionals, academics and students to enquire information in class diagrams that is considered important. In total, 25 complete responses were received with 76% of the respondents having average or above skills with class diagrams. As the results, we discovered that the metric that counts the number of public operations is the most important metric for indicating importance of a class in a diagram. Also, we discovered that class names and coupling were influencing factors when it comes to excluding classes from a class diagram.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Osman H., van Zadelhoff A. and R. V. Chaudron M. (2013). UML Class Diagram Simplification - A Survey for Improving Reverse Engineered Class Diagram Comprehension . In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development - Volume 1: MODELSWARD, ISBN 978-989-8565-42-6, pages 291-296. DOI: 10.5220/0004319902910296

in Bibtex Style

@conference{modelsward13,
author={Hafeez Osman and Arjan van Zadelhoff and Michel R. V. Chaudron},
title={UML Class Diagram Simplification - A Survey for Improving Reverse Engineered Class Diagram Comprehension},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development - Volume 1: MODELSWARD,},
year={2013},
pages={291-296},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0004319902910296},
isbn={978-989-8565-42-6},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development - Volume 1: MODELSWARD,
TI - UML Class Diagram Simplification - A Survey for Improving Reverse Engineered Class Diagram Comprehension
SN - 978-989-8565-42-6
AU - Osman H.
AU - van Zadelhoff A.
AU - R. V. Chaudron M.
PY - 2013
SP - 291
EP - 296
DO - 10.5220/0004319902910296