To UML or not to UML? – Empirical Study on the Approachability of Software Architecture Diagrams

Veli-Pekka Eloranta; Essi Isohanni; Samuel Lahtinen; Outi  Sievi-Korte

doi:10.1145/2811681.2811701

To UML or not to UML? – Empirical Study on the Approachability of Software Architecture Diagrams

Veli-Pekka Eloranta, Essi Isohanni, Samuel Lahtinen, Outi Sievi-Korte

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Scientific › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Software architecture design is key to building systems that meet quality demands. Choosing the appropriate way to model the architecture ensures it is rightly understood by everyone involved. UML diagrams are commonly used in software engineering but free-form diagrams are almost as common. In this paper, we study the factors inﬂuencing the approachability of diagrams, and particularly whether there is a diﬀerence in the approachability between UML and non-UML diagrams and colored and black & white di- agrams. Our results show that colors do not necessarily increase the approachability of diagrams and free-form di- agrams can suﬀer from ambiguousness. We conclude that simplicity and correctness are key factors when modeling architectures.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the ASWEC 2015 24th Australasian Software Engineering Conference (ASWEC ' 15 Vol. II)
Place of Publication	New York, NY, USA
Publisher	ACM
Pages	101-105
Number of pages	5
ISBN (Electronic)	978-1-4503-3796-0
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/2811681.2811701
Publication status	Published - 2015
Publication type	A4 Article in conference proceedings
Event	Australasian Software Engineering Conference - Duration: 1 Jan 1900 → …

Conference

Conference	Australasian Software Engineering Conference
Period	1/01/00 → …

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Publication forum level 1

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10.1145/2811681.2811701

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title = "To UML or not to UML? – Empirical Study on the Approachability of Software Architecture Diagrams",

abstract = "Software architecture design is key to building systems that meet quality demands. Choosing the appropriate way to model the architecture ensures it is rightly understood by everyone involved. UML diagrams are commonly used in software engineering but free-form diagrams are almost as common. In this paper, we study the factors inﬂuencing the approachability of diagrams, and particularly whether there is a diﬀerence in the approachability between UML and non-UML diagrams and colored and black & white di- agrams. Our results show that colors do not necessarily increase the approachability of diagrams and free-form di- agrams can suﬀer from ambiguousness. We conclude that simplicity and correctness are key factors when modeling architectures.",

author = "Veli-Pekka Eloranta and Essi Isohanni and Samuel Lahtinen and Outi Sievi-Korte",

note = "EXT={"}Eloranta, Veli-Pekka{"}; Australasian Software Engineering Conference ; Conference date: 01-01-1900",

year = "2015",

doi = "10.1145/2811681.2811701",

language = "English",

pages = "101--105",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the ASWEC 2015 24th Australasian Software Engineering Conference (ASWEC ' 15 Vol. II)",

publisher = "ACM",

address = "United States",

}

Eloranta, V-P, Isohanni, E, Lahtinen, S & Sievi-Korte, O 2015, To UML or not to UML? – Empirical Study on the Approachability of Software Architecture Diagrams. in Proceedings of the ASWEC 2015 24th Australasian Software Engineering Conference (ASWEC ' 15 Vol. II). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 101-105, Australasian Software Engineering Conference, 1/01/00. https://doi.org/10.1145/2811681.2811701

To UML or not to UML? – Empirical Study on the Approachability of Software Architecture Diagrams. / Eloranta, Veli-Pekka; Isohanni, Essi; Lahtinen, Samuel et al.
Proceedings of the ASWEC 2015 24th Australasian Software Engineering Conference (ASWEC ' 15 Vol. II). New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2015. p. 101-105.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Scientific › peer-review

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AB - Software architecture design is key to building systems that meet quality demands. Choosing the appropriate way to model the architecture ensures it is rightly understood by everyone involved. UML diagrams are commonly used in software engineering but free-form diagrams are almost as common. In this paper, we study the factors inﬂuencing the approachability of diagrams, and particularly whether there is a diﬀerence in the approachability between UML and non-UML diagrams and colored and black & white di- agrams. Our results show that colors do not necessarily increase the approachability of diagrams and free-form di- agrams can suﬀer from ambiguousness. We conclude that simplicity and correctness are key factors when modeling architectures.

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To UML or not to UML? – Empirical Study on the Approachability of Software Architecture Diagrams

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