A visual language and environment for enterprise system modelling and automation

Can icons enhance requirements engineering work?

“…Globalization has made traditional RE techniques even more challenging, as it takes place on a massive scale, requiring adjustments to be made to accommodate openness and diversity (Boehm, 2006;Cheng & Atlee, 2007;Li et al, 2014). The RE process is composed of the interwoven sequences of communicative, collaborative, and managerial activities with the overall goal of discovering, specifying, and understanding a software system (Ferreira & Silva, 2009;Svahnberg et al, 2013).…”

“…Vassev & Hinchey (2013) proposed an approach to autonomy RE in which a goal-oriented model is merged with special generic autonomy requirements. Li et al (2014) created a tree-overlay-based visual notation to support enterprise service modeling and generation using a more enduser-friendly metaphor. Huang et al (2014) tried to improve graphs considering aesthetic importance in graph design and found that larger crossing angles make graph notations easier to read.…”

“…In the RE domain, the main challenge faced when seeking to integrate icons has been determining the underlying visual notation that should be used to represent a specific concept to minimize ambiguity (e.g., Ballejos & Montagna, 2011;Bera & Evermann, 2014;Hadar et al, 2013;Horkoff & Yu, 2013;Li et al, 2014;Svahnber et al, 2013;Yu, 1997). Flowcharts, the first pictorial notation, have long been developed to support software engineering and are the predecessor for all modern visual notations such as UML and goal-oriented models .…”

“…Similarity, other authors claim that languages whose graphical syntax is easily understood are less likely to cause requirements problems. In recent studies (e.g., Bera & Evermann, 2014;Hadar et al, 2013;Horkoff & Yu, 2013;Li et al, 2014;Svahnber et al, 2013), researchers intricately examined RE models to understand their comprehensibility when specifying requirements. The heuristic intent is to advance the models upon which most notations are customarily constructed by abstract formalization wherein different interpretations can occur.…”

A domain-specific visual modeling language for testing environment emulation

“…They can be widely used languages for a specific technical domain, such as HTML for web pages, SQL for relational databases, and WebDSL for web applications [16]. Or, they can narrowly focus on a specific business domain, such as MaramaEML for business process modeling [17], SDL for supporting statistical survey process [18], and LabVIEW for electronic circuit testing design [19]. In contrast, we use a set of domain-specific visual modeling languages tailored to modeling signature, protocol and behavior layers of endpoints.…”