A Method for the Unified Definition and Treatment of Conceptual Schema Quality Issues

CMA Incremental ConclusionsMotivation Formalization CatalogIntroduction
A Method for the
Uniﬁed Deﬁnition and Treatment of
Conceptual Schema Quality Issues
Thesis supervised by
Dr. Antoni Olivé
Dr. Cristina Gómez
David Aguilera
June 6th, 2014
Barcelona

We cannot run the modern world
without software
2

We cannot run the modern world
without software
Which means software's quality
has become essential
to our society.
Introduction
3SOMMERVILLE, I. Software Engineering, 9 ed. Addison-Wesley, 2010

Quality
The degree up to which a set of
properties are met.
It depends on the perspective:
- Innate excellence
- Product-based
- User-based
- Manufacturing-based
- Value-based
Introduction
4GARVIN, D.A.. What does “product quality” really mean? Sloan Manag. Review 26, 1 (1984), 25-43

Quality in Software
It's been classically focused on
evaluating the ﬁnal product.
ISO standards
- ISO 9000
- ISO/IEC 1926
Proposals in the literature
Introduction
5

Maintenance
Software Development Process
Requirements
Design
Impl. & Unit Testing
Integration & Testing
Introduction
Classic Waterfall Model
Agile Methodologies
(like SCRUM, with iterations)
6SOMMERVILLE, I. Software Engineering, 9 ed. Addison-Wesley, 2010

Evaluating Quality in Software
Focusing on the Final Product is
positive and necessary...
...but is not as eﬃcient as it could be.
number
cost
time
Introduction
7

Conceptual Modeling
Essential Activity in the
Requirements Stage of the
Introduction
8OLIVÉ, A. Conceptual Modeling of Information Systems, Springer, 2007

Conceptual Modeling
Conceptual Schema
General Knowledge for an
Information System
to operate.
Essential Activity in the
Requirements Stage of the
Introduction

The Problem
Deﬁning Conceptual Schemas
is a complex and diﬃcult activity,
but the support modelers get is scarce.
There's a lot of work in the literature,
but it does not reach practitioners.
Introduction
9

Goal of this Thesis
Improve the Quality of
Conceptual Schemas
We want to help conceptual modelers.
We want their tools to assist them.
- Study and characterize several quality criteria.
- Create a catalog that unifies those criteria.
- Implement a conceptual modeling assistant.
Introduction
10

Addressed Quality Dimensions
We focus on those dimensions that can
be evaluated using the schema itself.
According to conceptual modeling quality
frameworks:
- Syntactical Quality
- Empirical Quality
- Other dimensions, such as semantic
validity, comprehension, ...
Introduction
11

Motivation
Formalization of Quality Issues
Catalog of Quality Issues
Conceptual Modeling Assistant
outline
02
03
04
05
Notes on Eﬃcient Evaluation06
Conclusions and Future Work07
Introduction01

Motivation
What we want. What we have.
13

Goal of this Thesis
Improve the Quality of
Conceptual Schemas
We want to help conceptual modelers to
create conceptual schemas:
- that are syntactically correct,
- that are complete,
- whose elements are relevant,
- that follow a set of best practices...
Motivation
14

What we would like to have...
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
motorcycle
plateNumber:String
Person
{disjoint, complete}
parent 2
3
child
IsParentOf
Owns* 0..1
Motivation
15

I want it to be syntactically correct.
e.g. generalization cycles
Motivation
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
motorcycle
plateNumber:String
Person
parent 2
3
child
IsParentOf
Owns* 0..1
16OBJECT MANAGEMENT GROUP (OMG), Unified Modeling Language (UML), Superstructure, 2011

I want it to be syntactically correct.
e.g. generalization cycles
Motivation
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
motorcycle
plateNumber:String
Person
parent 2
3
child
IsParentOf
Owns* 0..1
Remove one
generalization to
break the cycle

I want it not to have duplicated info.
e.g. redundant generalizations
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
Person
parent 2
3
child
IsParentOf
Owns* 0..1
Motivation

e.g. redundant generalizations
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
Person
parent 2
3
child
IsParentOf
Owns* 0..1
Remove redundant
generalization
Motivation

e.g. repeated attributes
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
Person
parent 2
3
child
IsParentOf
Owns* 0..1
Motivation
18FOWLER, M. Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code, Addison-Wesley, 1999

LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
Person
parent 2
3
child
IsParentOf
Owns* 0..1
Pull-Up Property
Refactoring
Motivation

LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
Person
parent 2
3
child
IsParentOf
Owns* 0..1
Pull-Up Property
Refactoring
Incomplete
GeneralizationSet
Motivation

LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
Person
parent 2
3
child
IsParentOf
Owns* 0..1
Incomplete
GeneralizationSet
Motivation

LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
Person
{disjoint, incomplete}
parent 2
3
child
IsParentOf
Owns* 0..1
Motivation

LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
Person
parent 2
3
child
IsParentOf
Owns* 0..1
I want it to be correct.
e.g. non-empty populations
Motivation

LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
Person
parent 2
3
child
IsParentOf
Owns* 0..1
Motivation

LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
Person
parent 2
3
child
IsParentOf
Owns* 0..1
Change
multiplicities
Motivation

LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
Person
IsParentOf
Owns* 0..1
Change
multiplicities
parent 2
0..3
child
Motivation

I want it to be complete.
e.g. awareness of (possibly) missing information
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
Person
parent 2
0..3
child
IsParentOf
Owns* 0..1
Motivation

LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
Person
parent 2
0..3
child
IsParentOf
Owns* 0..1
(ir)reﬂexive?
(in)transitive?
(a)symmetric?
Motivation

LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
Person
parent 2
0..3
child
IsParentOf
Owns* 0..1
(ir)reﬂexive?
(in)transitive?
(a)symmetric?
Yes, all relevant constraints
are in the schema.
Motivation

LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
Person
parent 2
0..3
child
IsParentOf
Owns* 0..1
(ir)reﬂexive?
(in)transitive?
(a)symmetric?
Yes, all relevant constraints
are in the schema.
Create an asymmetry
constraint, which is missing.
Motivation

LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
Person
parent 2
0..3
child
IsParentOf
Owns* 0..1
Create an asymmetry
constraint, which is missing.
Motivation

LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
Person
parent 2
0..3
child
IsParentOf
Owns* 0..1
context Person inv:
self.child.child->
excludes( self )
Motivation

But, what do we have today?
Motivation
- Inspections, testing, reviews, …
- There are several quality properties pu-
blished (and scattered) in the literature.
- There are also proposals for efficiently
dealing with inconsistencies.
- Current modeling tools o er little toff
no support for dealing with this stu .ff
(ArgoUML, Rational Rose, USE, Poseidon, ...)
21

Overview of Our Method
Motivation
22

Formalization
A
Motivation
22

Formalization
Characterization
of Quality Issues
A
Motivation
22

Formalization
Characterization
of Quality Issues
A
Issue A
Scope,
conditions...
Motivation
22

Formalization Catalog
Characterization
of Quality Issues
A
Issue A
Scope,
conditions...
Motivation
22

Characterization
of Quality Issues
A
Issue A
Scope,
conditions...
Issue A
Context,
conditions...
Issue A
Scope,
conditions...
Motivation
22

Characterization
of Quality Issues
A
Issue A
Scope,
conditions...
Issue A
Context,
conditions...
Issue A
Scope,
conditions...
Issue A
Context,
conditions...
Issue B
Scope,
conditions...
Motivation
22

Characterization
of Quality Issues
A
Issue A
Scope,
conditions...
Issue A
Context,
conditions...
Issue A
Scope,
conditions...
Issue A
Context,
conditions...
Issue B
Scope,
conditions...
Issue A
Context,
conditions...
Issue C
Scope,
conditions...
Motivation
22

Formalization Catalog CMA
Modeling
Tool
Characterization
of Quality Issues
A
Issue A
Scope,
conditions...
Issue A
Context,
conditions...
Issue A
Scope,
conditions...
Issue A
Context,
conditions...
Issue B
Scope,
conditions...
Issue A
Context,
conditions...
Issue C
Scope,
conditions...
Motivation
22

Characterization
of Quality Issues
A
Issue A
Scope,
conditions...
Issue A
Context,
conditions...
Issue A
Scope,
conditions...
Issue A
Context,
conditions...
Issue B
Scope,
conditions...
Issue A
Context,
conditions...
Issue C
Scope,
conditions...
Motivation
CMA
Modeling
Tool
22

Characterization
of Quality Issues
A
Issue A
Scope,
conditions...
Issue A
Context,
conditions...
Issue A
Scope,
conditions...
Issue A
Context,
conditions...
Issue B
Scope,
conditions...
Issue A
Context,
conditions...
Issue C
Scope,
conditions...
1. This gen is redu
2. Association has
3. Constraint does
Motivation
CMA
Modeling
Tool
22

1. This gen is redu
2. Association has
3. Constraint does
Catalog
Issue A
Context,
conditions...
Issue A
Scope,
conditions...
Issue A
Context,
conditions...
Issue B
Scope,
conditions...
Issue A
Context,
conditions...
Issue C
Scope,
conditions...
Formalization
Characterization
of Quality Issues
A
Issue A
Scope,
conditions...
Motivation
CMA
Modeling
Tool
22

Design Science Research
“its fundamental principle is that
knowledge and understanding
of a design problem and its solution
are acquired in the building and
application of an artifact”.
Motivation
23HEVNER, A. R., MARCH, S. T., PARK, J., AND RAM, S. Design science in information systems research, MIS Q. 28, 1 (2004) 75-105

Design Science Research
Quality Properties
Characterization and
Formalization
Catalog CMA
State of the Art
Challenge
Assist Modelers and Improve Quality
Searching
Adapting
Testing
Motivation
24

Characterization and Formalization of
25

What is an Issue?
“an important topic or problem
for debate or discussion”
Formalization
26

What is an Issue?
“an important topic or problem
for debate or discussion”
In essence, it is a condition the schema
should not satisfy to:
- be syntactically correct,
- be complete,
- ensure all elements are relevant,
- follow a best practice...
Formalization
26

What is an Issue?
Formalization
An Issue Type describes the problem.
An Issue Instance is a concrete instance
of that problem in the schema.
27

What is an Issue?
An Issue Type describes the problem.
An Issue Instance is a concrete instance
of that problem in the schema.
Formalization
Type: “There are redun-
dant generalizations”
Instance: “g1 is redundant”
g1
g2
g3, g4
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car Motorcycle
27

Issue Type Deﬁnition
An Issue Type must be able to specify:
- which kind of elements may raise an issue,
- which elements do actually raise it,
- how to ﬁx that issue, and
- when and how should that issue be addressed
Formalization
28

Ix = { Sx, Φx, ρx, Ox, Px, Kx, Ax }
An Issue Type must be able to specify:
- which kind of elements may raise an issue,
- which elements do actually raise it,
- how to ﬁx that issue, and
- when and how should that issue be addressed
Formalization
28

Formalization
28

Sx (scope) and Φx (applicability condition)
determine the potential set of elements that
may raise an issue of type Ix
Formalization
29

g1
g2
g3, g4
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car Motorcycle
Formalization
29

g1
g2
g3, g4
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car Motorcycle
Sx = { Generalization }
Formalization
29

g1
g2
g3, g4
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car Motorcycle
Sx = { Generalization }
Φx (g) = “there are two
generalizations ga and gb
such that:
g.general = ga.general
g.speciﬁc = gb.speciﬁc
Formalization
29

ρx (issue condition) determines if an element in
Pot(Ix) does actually raise an issue of type Ix
Formalization
30

g1
g2
g3, g4
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car Motorcycle
ρx (g) = “there is an indi-
rect generalization path
between g.general and
g.speciﬁc”
Formalization
30

g1
g2
g3, g4
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car Motorcycle
ρx (g) = “there is an
indirect generalizations
path between g.general
and g.speciﬁc”
Formalization
30

Ox is a set of actions that help the conceptual
modeler to ﬁx an issue instance
Formalization
31

g1
g2
g3, g4
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car Motorcycle
Ox = { “remove redundant
generalization” }
Formalization
31

g2
g3, g4
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car Motorcycle
generalization” }
Formalization
31

g1
g2
g3, g4
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car Motorcycle
generalization”,
“break the indirect path of
generalizations” }
Formalization
31

g1
g3, g4
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car Motorcycle
generalization”,
“break the indirect path of
generalizations” }
Formalization
31

Px is a set of precedents, which are issue types
that must not have issues for considering Ix.
Formalization
32

Ia = “there is a cycle of
generalizations”
Ib = “there are redundant
generalizations”
Formalization
g1
g2
g3
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
32

generalizations”
Ib = “the generalization is
redundant”
Formalization
g1
g2
g3
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
32

generalizations”
Ib = “the generalization is
redundant”
Pb = { Ia }
Formalization
g2
g3
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
32

Kx (kind) can either be Problem or Checking.
Formalization
33

Problem Issues can only be ﬁxed by
changing the schema, so that the issue
does no longer exist.
Formalization
34

LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car Motorcycle
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car Motorcycle
Formalization
34

Checking Issues require the conceptual
modeler to manually check something.
There might be situations in which this
checking will entail some changes in the
schema.
Formalization
35

“Check whether the asso-
ciation «IsParentOf» needs
a constraint enforcing the
symmetry property.”
Formalization
35
Person
parent 0..2
*
child
IsParentOf

Person
parent 0..2
*
child
IsParentOf
Formalization
35
context Person inv:
self.child.child->
excludes( self )

✓
Person
parent 0..2
*
child
IsParentOf
Formalization
35
context Person inv:
self.child.child->
excludes( self )

Ax (acceptability) indicates whether an
issue type is Acceptable or Non-acceptable
Formalization
36

MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
If non-acceptable,
we must modify the
schema in a way
such that the issue
disappears.
Formalization
37

MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
If non-acceptable,
we must modify the
schema in a way
such that the issue
disappears.
Formalization
37
Pull-up
Property

MotorVehicle
plateNumber:String
Car Motorcycle
If non-acceptable,
we must modify the
schema in a way
such that the issue
disappears.
Formalization
37

MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
If non-acceptable,
we must modify the
schema in a way
such that the issue
disappears.
Formalization
37
Change it to
incomplete

MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
If non-acceptable,
we must modify the
schema in a way
such that the issue
disappears.
Formalization
37

MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
If acceptable,
the modeler can
simply state that he
won't ﬁx it the
schema.
Formalization
38

✓
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
If acceptable,
the modeler can
simply state that he
won't ﬁx it the
schema.
Formalization
38

Life cycle of an Issue Instance
Formalization
Non-Acceptable
Problem Issue
Acceptable
Problem Issue
Non-Acceptable
Checking Issue
Acceptable
Checking Issue
Pending
Pending
Accepted
Pending
CheckedChecked
Pending
Accepted
Deletion
Deletion Deletion Deletion
Accept
Accept
Check
Check
Reconsider
Reconsider
Reconsider
Reconsider
39

A Catalog of Quality Issues
40

The Catalog
Design Science Research requires
an artifact to be built.
Catalog
A Catalog of Quality Issues presents
quality properties uniformly and
demonstrates the expressiveness and
usefulness of our method.
41

Expressiveness
The catalog includes all metamodel constraints plus
65 additional non-syntactic quality issue types.
(from conceptual modeling books, papers, and IDEs)
Catalog
We deﬁned them as
Quality Issues using
our formalization.
42

Classiﬁcation
Catalog
Syntactic Issue Types
An integrity constraint deﬁned in the UML
metamodel.
For example,
“There is a cycle of generalizations.”

Classiﬁcation
Catalog
Syntactic Issue Types
An integrity constraint deﬁned in the UML
metamodel.
LandVehicle
MotorVehicle
Car
Non-acceptable Problem
= <Classifier>
= true
= self.allParents()->
includesSelf()
S
Φ
ρ
43

Classiﬁcation
Catalog
Syntactic Plus Issue Types (11)
Integrity constraints applicable when UML
is used as a conceptual modeling language.
For example,
“An attribute has no type.”
44MOODY, D.L., Metrics for evaluating the quality of entity relationship models. In ER, vol. 1507 of LNCS. Springer, 1998, pp. 211-225

Classiﬁcation
Catalog
Syntactic Plus Issue Types (11)
Integrity constraints applicable when UML
is used as a conceptual modeling language.
Car
plateNumber
= <Property>
= it is an attribute
= self.type()->
notEmpty()
S
Φ
ρ
44

Classiﬁcation
Catalog
Basic Quality Issue Types (20)
Fundamental properties for a schema to be
correct, relevant, and complete.
For example,
“The schema is not strongly satisfia-
ble because of a recursive associa-
tion.”

Classiﬁcation
Catalog
Basic Quality Issue Types (20)
Person
parent 2
3
child
IsParentOf
Fundamental properties for a schema to be
correct, relevant, and complete.
= <Association>
= “is binary and recursive”
= “the multiplicities are
not strongly satisfiable”
S
Φ
ρ
45

Classiﬁcation
Catalog
Best Practices (18)
Issues that are recommended by some
authors in some contexts.
For example,
“An attribute repeated among all
specific classes of an incomplete
generalization set is correct.”

Classiﬁcation
Catalog
Best Practices (18)
Issues that are recommended by some
authors in some contexts.
(Non-)Acceptable Checking
= <gs:GenSet, s:String>
= “gs is incomplete”
= “every specific class of gs
has an attribute named s”
S
Φ
ρ
MotorVehicle
Car
plateNumber:String
Motorcycle
plateNumber:String
{incomplete}
46

Classiﬁcation
Catalog
Naming Guidelines (16)
Special kind of best practices, focused on
the names given to schema elements.
For example,
“The name of a boolean attribute is
not a third-person singular verb-
phrase.”
47
AGUILERA, D., GÓMEZ, C., OLIVÉ, A., A complete set of guidelines for naming UML conceptual schema elements.
Data Knowl. Eng. 88, 0 (2013), 60-74

Classiﬁcation
Catalog
Naming Guidelines (16)
Special kind of best practices, focused on
the names given to schema elements.
(Non-)Acceptable Problem
= <Property>
= “it is boolean”
= “its name is not a verb
phrase written in singu-
lar third-person form”
S
Φ
ρ
Person
adult:Boolean
47

Usefulness
We analyzed 13 conceptual schemas
developed by students as part of their
ﬁnal projects in a Computer Science degree.
Catalog
Size of the schemas (median):
- 17 Classes
- 3 AssocClases
- 12 Associations
- 56 Attributes
- 8 Invariants
48

Usefulness
Catalog
All conceptual schemas presented
several Quality Issues!
Number of issues (median):
- 0 Syntactic+
- 111 Basic Properties
- 33 Best Practices
- 24 Naming Guidelines
Size of the schemas:
- 17 Classes
- 3 AssocClases
- 12 Associations
- 56 Attributes
- 8 Invariants
49

Explore and Analyze current UML IDEs,
comparing them with our catalog
Support by Current IDEs
29 Modeling Tools
Focus on the UML
Conceptual Modeling Tasks
Catalog
50
(ArgoUML, Rational Rose, USE, Poseidon, SDMetrics...)

- Do they control syntactic issue types?
- What about other issue types?
- How do they o er this support?ﬀ
- Do they provide assistance for ﬁxing them?
- Can they be extended with new issue types?
Support by Current IDEs
Catalog
Explore and Analyze current UML IDEs,
comparing them with our catalog
51

What we found...
Syntactic Support
3 Full
17 Partial
9 None
Catalog
52

What we found...
Syntactic Support Non-Syntactic Support
S+ BasProp BestPrac Naming
20
0
3 Full
17 Partial
9 None
Catalog
ArgoUML
SDMetrics
CatalogCatalog
52

What we found...
3 Full
17 Partial
9 None
20
0
Catalog
ArgoUML
SDMetrics
CatalogCatalog
Corrective Actions
- 2 tools only
52

What we found...
Extension Mechanisms
- 4 tools only
3 Full
17 Partial
9 None
20
0
Catalog
ArgoUML
SDMetrics
Catalog
Corrective Actions
- 2 tools only
52

Support by IDEs vs. our Catalog
Best IDEs today
ArgoUML and SDMetrics
The number of
issues detected by our catalog versus
those detected by these tools
is 10 times larger!
Catalog
53

Fair Comparison... (extensibility?)
- Only 4 tools can be extended
- They all deal with problem issues,
thus ignoring checking issues
- The formalization they use is less
expressive than ours
Catalog
54

Implementation of a Prototype Tool
55

Eclipse
CMA based on Eclipse
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Workbench
Platform Runtime
Web
Tools
Java Dev
Tools
CMA
Design Science Research requires
an artifact to be built.
56

Plugins
Architecture of our CMA
Eclipse
Workbench
Platform
Runtime
CMA
57

Plugins
Eclipse
Workbench
Platform
Runtime
UML2
Tools
OCL
Interpreter
CMA
57

Plugins
Eclipse
Workbench
Platform
Runtime
UML2
Tools
OCL
Interpreter
CMA Plugin
Issue
Processor IssueType
Manager
Issue View
(feedback)
CMA
57

Plugins
Eclipse
Workbench
Platform
Runtime
UML2
Tools
OCL
Interpreter
CMA Plugin
Issue
Processor
Issue View
(feedback)
Issue
Type
XML
IssueType
Manager
CMA
57

Plugins
Eclipse
Workbench
Platform
Runtime
UML2
Tools
OCL
Interpreter
CMA Plugin
Issue
Processor
Issue View
(feedback)
Remote
Server
Issue
Catalog
Issue
Type
XML
IssueType
Manager
CMA
57

The Catalog
CMA
58

The Catalog – Regular Issue Types
CMA
<issue nid=”038” id=”redundant-gen”
kind=”problem” acceptance=”non-acceptable”>
<context>Generalization</context>
<title>A generalization is redundant</title>
<applicability-condition>
Generalization.allInstances()->select( g1, g2 |
g1 <> self and g2 <> self and
g2.specific = self.specific and g2.general = self.general )
->notEmpty()
</applicability-condition>

</issue>
59

The Catalog – Black-Box Issue Types
CMA
60
UML2
Tools
OCL
Interpreter
CMA Plugin
Issue
Processor
Issue View
(feedback)
Issue
CatalogIssue
Type
XML
IssueType
Manager

CMA
60
UML2
Tools
OCL
Interpreter
CMA Plugin
Issue
Processor
Issue View
(feedback)
Issue
CatalogIssue
Type
XML
IssueType
Manager
«interface»
IBlackBoxIssueType

CMA
60
UML2
Tools
OCL
Interpreter
CMA Plugin
Issue
Processor
Issue View
(feedback)
Issue
CatalogIssue
Type
XML
IssueType
Manager
«interface»
IBlackBoxIssueType
BlackBoxIssueType
getPotentialSet()
doesRaiseAnIssueType(Tuple)

CMA
CMA
61

Eﬃcient Evaluation
of Quality Issues
62

Computation of Issue Instances
Incremental
Person
adult:Boolean
Book
isABestSeller:Boolean
Sx = { Property }
ρx(a) = “the name of a boolean
attribute is not a verb phrase”
63

Incremental
Issues?
Evaluate the Applicability
and Issue Conditions for
every instance of the scope.
Person
adult:Boolean
Book
Sx = { Property }
63

Incremental
Person
adult:Boolean
Book
Sx = { Property }
64

Incremental
Person
adult:Boolean
Book
Sx = { Property }
The name of the boolean
attribute «adult» is not a
verb phrase.
64

Incremental
Book
verb phrase.
Sx = { Property }
This evaluation takes time.
We want to detect quality issues
as fast as possible.
65

Incremental
“Not all changes that can be applied to
the schema have an e ect on theﬀ
evaluation of the expression”.
Incremental Methods
66

Incremental Methods
Possible changes:
Incremental
Person
adult:Boolean
Book
verb phrase.
Sx = { Property }
67

Incremental Methods
Possible changes:
- Change the name of A1
Incremental
Person
adult:Boolean
Book
verb phrase.
Sx = { Property }
67

Incremental Methods
Possible changes:
Incremental
Person
adult:Boolean
Book
free:Boolean
verb phrase.
Sx = { Property }
attribute «free» is not a
verb phrase.
67

Incremental Methods
Possible changes:
Incremental
Person
adult:Boolean
Book
verb phrase.
Sx = { Property }
67

Incremental Methods
Possible changes:
Incremental
Person
isAnAdult:Boolean
Book
Sx = { Property }
67

Incremental Methods
Possible changes:
- Change the name of C1
Incremental
Person
adult:Boolean
Book
verb phrase.
Sx = { Property }
67

Incremental Methods
Possible changes:
Incremental
Man
adult:Boolean
Book
verb phrase.
Sx = { Property }
67

Incremental Methods
Possible changes:
- Add a new attribute
- Delete an association
- Create a generalization
Incremental
Person
adult:Boolean
Book
verb phrase.
Sx = { Property }
67

Incremental Methods
Incremental
Possible changes:
Person
adult:Boolean
Book
verb phrase.
Sx = { Property }
The goal of an Incremental Method
is to determine the set of changes
that (might) change the result of
evaluating an expression.
68

Incremental Methods
Incremental
Possible changes:
Person
adult:Boolean
Book
verb phrase.
Sx = { Property }
69

Incremental Methods
Incremental
Person
adult:Boolean
Book
verb phrase.
Sx = { Property }
69
Possible changes:
- Change the type of A2
- Delete A2

Eﬃcient Detection of Issues
We selected Egyed's method and applied it to
our algorithm, taking into account:
- Applicability and issue conditions
- Precedents
Modify the algorithm for
computing issue instances with an
instance-based incremental approach.
Incremental
70
EGYED, A. Automatically detecting and tracking inconsistencies in software design models.
IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. 37, 2 (2011), 188-204

Improvements in Eﬃciency
Regular approach (schemas <500 elems)
Incremental approach
Avg. 9 seconds Max. over 5 minutes
Max. 250 millisecs
Incremental
The results are conclusive.
71

Conclusions and Future Work
72

Conclusions
The Problem
Deﬁning Conceptual Schemas is a complex
and diﬃcult activity, but the support modelers
get is scarce.
Conclusions
73

Conclusions
The Problem
Quality in Conceptual Modeling is important,
but the support modelers get is scarce.
The Solution
A method for defining and treating Quality Issues,
whose goal is to assist conceptual modelers.
(based on current literature)
The Problem
Defining Conceptual Schemas is a complex
and difficult activity, but the support modelers
get is scarce.
Conclusions
73

1
Formalization
- Definition
- (Efficient) Detection
- Solution
Conclusions
AGUILERA, D., GÓMEZ, C., AND OLIVÉ, A.
A method for the definition and treatment of conceptual schema quality issues.
In ER (2012), vol. 7532 of LNCS, Springer, pp. 501-514 74

2
Catalog
Issues from the literature
- UML/OCL
- Syntactic correctness
- Best practices and guidelines
Conclusions
A complete set of guidelines for naming UML conceptual schema elements.
Data Knowl. Eng. 88, 0 (2013), 60-74
Enforcement of conceptual schema quality issues in current Integrated
Development Environments. In CAiSE (2013), vol. 7908 of LNCS, Springer, pp. 626-640
75

3
CMA
- The Eclipse Platform
- Implements the method
- Integrates the catalog
Conclusions
AGUILERA, D., GARCÍA-RANEA, R., GÓMEZ, C., AND OLIVÉ, A.
An eclipse plugin for validating names in UML conceptual schemas. In
ER Workshops (2011), vol. 6999 of LNCS, Springer, pp. 323-327
An eclipse plugin for improving the quality of UML conceptual schemas. In
ER Workshops (2012), vol. 7518 of LNCS, Springer, pp. 387-390 76

What's next?
77
Conclusions

What's next?
Extending the Catalog
78
Conclusions

What's next?
Integration with Testing
79
Conclusions

What's next?
Validation with Real Users and Projects
80
Conclusions

What's next?
Automatic Reparation
81
Conclusions

Publications
Enforcement of conceptual schema quality issues in current Integrated
Development Environments.
In CAiSE (2013), vol. 7908 of LNCS, Springer, pp. 626-640
An eclipse plugin for improving the quality of UML conceptual schemas.
In ER Workshops (2012), vol. 7518 of LNCS, Springer, pp. 387-390
AGUILERA, D., GARCÍA-RANEA, R., GÓMEZ, C., AND OLIVÉ, A.
An eclipse plugin for validating names in UML conceptual schemas.
In ER Workshops (2011), vol. 6999 of LNCS, Springer, pp. 323-327
A complete set of guidelines for naming UML conceptual schema elements.
Data Knowl. Eng. 88, 0 (2013), 60-74
A method for the deﬁnition and treatment of conceptual schema quality issues.
In ER (2012), vol. 7532 of LNCS, Springer, pp. 501-514
82
Conclusions

David Aguilera
UPC - Barcelona
Dr. Olivé and Dr. Gómez
A Method for the
Uniﬁed Deﬁnition and Treatment of

A Method for the Unified Definition and Treatment of Conceptual Schema Quality Issues

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