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Towards a metric suite for OCL expressions expressed within UML/OCL models
Keywords:
Object Constraint Language (OCL)Abstract
UML models quality is clearly a crucial issue that must be evaluated at the initial stages of object-oriented software development, in order to get software products with better quality. This fact is corroborated by the huge amount of metrics that have appeared in the literature related to the measurement of UML diagrams at a high level design stage. Most of these metrics are focused on the measurement of internal quality attributes such as structural complexity, coupling, size, etc. However, none of the proposed metrics take into account the added complexity involved when a UML model are complemented by expressions written in Object Constraint Language (OCL), that is a UML/OCL model. Due OCL is essential in building consistent and coherent platform-independent models we propose a metric suite for structural properties of OCL expressions. These metrics were proposed considering OCL concepts related to the "chunking" and "tracing" cognitive techniques. We believe that cognitive techniques affect the cognitive complexity, and by consequence the understandability and maintainability of expression of UML/OCL models. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to show how we defined these metrics in a methodological way, assuring thus their validity.
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References
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[31].M. Richters. (2002). A Precise Approach to Validating UML Models and OCL Constraints. Biss Monographs Vol. 14. Gogolla, M., Kreowski, H.J.,Krieg-Brückner, B., Peleska, J., Schlingloff, B.H.(series editors). Logos Verlag. Berlin.
[32].N. Schneidewind, (1992). Methodology For Validating Software Metrics. IEEE Transactions of Software Engineering, Vol. 18. Nº 5, pp. 410-422.
[33].R. Van Solingen, and E. Berghout, (1999). TheGoal/Question/Metric Method: A practical guide forquality improvement of software development. McGraw-Hill.
[34].J. Warmer, and A. Kleppe, (1999). The Object Constraint Language. Precise Modeling with UML.Object Technology Series. Addison-Wesley. Massachusetts.
[35].J. Warmer and A. Kleppe (2003). The Object Constraint Language. Second Edition. Getting Your Models Ready for MDA. Object Technology Series. Addison-Wesley. Massachusetts.
[2]. V. R. Basili, and H. Rombach, (1998). The TAME project: towards improvement-oriented software environments. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering. Vol. 14. Nº 6, pp. 758-773.
[3].V. Basili, F. Shull and F. Lanubile. (1999). Building knowledge through families of experiments. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 25. Nº 4, pp. 435-437.
[4]. D. A. Boehm-Davis, J. E. Fox, B. and Philips, (1996).Techniques for Exploring Program Comprehension. Empirical Studies of Programmers, Sixth Workshop. Eds. W. Gray and D. Boehm-Davis. Norwood, NJ:Ablex, pp. 3-21.
[5].L. C. Briand, S. Arisholm, F. Counsell, F. Houdek y P. Thévenod-Fosse. “Empirical Studies of Object-Oriented Artefacts, Methods, and Processes: State ofthe Art and Future Directions”, Empirical Software Engineering, 4(4), diciembre, 1999, pp. 387-404.
[6].L. C. Briand, S. Morasca, and V. Basili, (1999).Defining and validating measures for object-basedhigh level design. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering. Vol. 25. Nº 5, pp. 722-743.
[7]. L. C. Briand, S. Morasca, and V. Basili, (1996). Property-based software engineering measurement. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 22. Nº 1, pp. 68-86.
[8]. L. C. Briand, S. Morasca and V. Basili, (1997). Response to: comments ‘Property-Based Software Engineering Measurement’: Refining the additivity properties. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 22. Nº 3, pp. 196-197.
[9].L. C. Briand. and J. Wüst (2001). Modeling Development Effort in Object-Oriented Systems Using Design Properties. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 27. Nº 11, pp.963-986.
[10].C. Calero, M. Piattini, and M. Genero, (2001).Method for obtaining correct metrics. Proc. of the 3rd International Conference on Enterprise and Information Systems (ICEIS`2001), pp. 779-784.
[11].S. N. Cant, B. Henderson-Sellers, and D. R. Jeffery(1994). Application of Cognitive Complexity Metrics to Object-Oriented Programs. Journal of Object-Oriented Programming, Vol. 7. Nº 4, pp. 52-63.
[12].S. N. Cant, D. R. Jeffery and B. Henderson-Seller, B. (1992) A Conceptual Model of Cognitive Complexity of Elements of the Programming Process. Informationand Software Technology, Vol. 7, pp. 351-362.
[13].G. Cantone, and P. Donzelli, (2000). Production and maintenance of software measurement models. Journal of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, Vol. 5, pp. 605-626.
[14]. D. Card, K. El-Emam and B. Scalzo, ”Measurement of Object-Oriented Software Development Projects”,Software Productivity Consortium NFP, 2001.
[15].S. Cook, A. Kleepe, R. Mitchell, B. Rumpe, J.Warmer and A. Wills (2001). The Amsterdam Manifiesto on OCL. Tony Clark and Jos Warmer, editors, Advances in Object Modelling with the OCL, pp. 115-149. Springer, Berlin, LNCS 2263.
[16].K. El-Eman, (2001). Object-Oriented Metrics: A Review of Theory and Practice. National Research Council Canada. Institute for Information Technology.
[17].N. Fenton, and S. Pfleeger, (1997). Software Metrics:A Rigorous and Practical Approach. Chapman & Hall, London, 2nd Edition. International Thomson Publishing Inc.
[18].M. Genero, “Defining and Validating Metrics for Conceptual Models”, PhD Thesis, Universidad de Castilla - La Mancha, 2002.
[19].M. Gogolla, and M. Richters (2001). Expressing UML Class Diagrams properties with OCL. Tony Clark and Jos Warmer, editors, Advances in ObjectModelling with the OCL, pp. 85-114. Springer, Berlin, LNCS 2263.
[20].B. Henderson-Sellers (1996). Object-Oriented Metrics: Measures of Complexity. Prentice-Hall.
[21].R. Hennicker, H. Hussmann, and M. Bidoit (2001).On the Precise Meaning of OCL Constraints. Tony Clark and Jos Warmer, editors, Advances in Object Modelling with the OCL, pp. 69-84. Springer, Berlin,LNCS 2263.
[22].ISO/IEC 9126 (2001). Software Product Evaluation-Quality Characteristics and Guidelines for their Use.Geneva.
[23].B. Kitchenham, S. Pflegger, and N. Fenton, (1995).Towards a Framework for Software Measurement Validation. IEEE Transactions of Software Engineering, Vol. 21. Nº 12, pp. 929-943.
[24]. T. Klemola, (2000). A cognitive model for complexity metrics. 4th International ECOOP Workshop on Quantitative Approaches in Object-Oriented Software Engineering. Sophia Antipolis and Cannes, France.
[25].Object Management Group. (2003a). UML 2.0 Infrastructure Final Adopted Specification. OMGDocument ptc/03-09-15. [On-line] Available http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?ptc/2003-09-15.
[26].Object Management Group. (2003b). UML 2.0 OCL 2nd revised submission. OMG Document ad/2003-01-07. [On-line] Available: http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?ad/2003-01-07.
[27].Object Management Group. (2003c). UMLSpecification Version 1.5, OMG Documentformal/03-03-01. [On-line] Available: http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?formal/03-03-01
[28] L. Reynoso, M. Genero and M. Piattini, (2003a). Métricas para expresiones OCL relacionadas con la técnica cognitiva de “chunking”. CLEI 2003. La Paz, Bolivia.
[29].L. Reynoso, M. Genero and M. Piattini, (2003b).Métricas para propiedades estructurales de expresiones OCL relacionadas con la técnica de “chunking”. CACIC 2003. La Plata, Argentina.
[30].L. Reynoso, M. Genero and M. Piattini, (2003c). Measuring OCL expressions: a “tracing”-based approach. Workshop on Quantitative Approaches in Object-Oriented Software Engineering. QAOOSE’2003. Alemania.
[31].M. Richters. (2002). A Precise Approach to Validating UML Models and OCL Constraints. Biss Monographs Vol. 14. Gogolla, M., Kreowski, H.J.,Krieg-Brückner, B., Peleska, J., Schlingloff, B.H.(series editors). Logos Verlag. Berlin.
[32].N. Schneidewind, (1992). Methodology For Validating Software Metrics. IEEE Transactions of Software Engineering, Vol. 18. Nº 5, pp. 410-422.
[33].R. Van Solingen, and E. Berghout, (1999). TheGoal/Question/Metric Method: A practical guide forquality improvement of software development. McGraw-Hill.
[34].J. Warmer, and A. Kleppe, (1999). The Object Constraint Language. Precise Modeling with UML.Object Technology Series. Addison-Wesley. Massachusetts.
[35].J. Warmer and A. Kleppe (2003). The Object Constraint Language. Second Edition. Getting Your Models Ready for MDA. Object Technology Series. Addison-Wesley. Massachusetts.
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Published
2004-04-01
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[1]
“Towards a metric suite for OCL expressions expressed within UML/OCL models”, JCS&T, vol. 4, no. 01, pp. p. 38–44, Apr. 2004, Accessed: Jun. 15, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://journal.info.unlp.edu.ar/JCST/article/view/912
