How consistency is handled in model-driven software engineering and UML: an expert opinion survey.

Model-driven software engineering (MDSE) is an established approach for developing complex software systems. The unified modelling language (UML) is one of the most used model languages for applying the MDSE approach. UML has 14 diagram types that describe different perspectives of a software system under development. These diagrams are strongly dependent on each other and must be consistent with one another. The main objectives of this paper are as follows: (1) to understand (i) how aware experts are of model consistency issues and (ii) how relevant these issues are to experts, in order to understand model consistency in the MDSE/UML contexts, and more importantly, (2) to validate a set of 116 UML consistency rules that was systematically collected from the literature, so as to identify the rules that should always be enforced. We conducted a personal opinion survey with 106 experts in SE and MDSE, by means of an online questionnaire. The survey results describe an overview of how the topic of MDSE/UML consistency is handled by experts in the field. In addition, this survey identified a set of 52 UML consistency rules which should always be checked in every UML diagram. The majority of these 52 rules were understood by the majority of respondents and are general-purpose rules that are involved in the Design software development phase. This subset of 52 rules could be considered to be (1) added to the UML standard, (2) used as a reference to researchers who study UML/MDSE, and (3) used as a practical example for teaching purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]