Quality and comprehension of UML interaction diagrams-an experimental comparison

Glezer, Chanan; Last, Mark; Nachmany, Efrat; Shoval, Peretz

doi:10.1016/j.infsof.2005.01.003

“…Such UML diagrams illustrate the behavior of a system and show very similar characteristics as process models. They are also commonly used for modeling processes [25]. These types of diagrams include [26]:…”

Section: ((Understandability or Comprehension) And ("Process Model" Omentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors influencing the understandability of process models: A systematic literature review

Dikici

¹

,

Türetken

²

,

Demirörs

³

2018

Information and Software Technology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Context: Process models are key in facilitating communication in organizations and in designing process-aware information systems. Organizations are facing increasingly larger and more complex processes, which pose difficulties to the understandability of process models. The literature reports several factors that are considered to influence the understandability of process models. However, these studies typically focus on testing of a limited set of factors. A work that collects, abstracts and synthesizes an in-depth summary of the current literature will help in developing the research in this field. Objective: We conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) focusing on the empirical studies in the existing literature in order to better understand the state of the research on process model understandability, and identify the gaps and opportunities for future research. Method: We searched the studies between the years 1995 and 2015 in established electronic libraries. Out of 1066 publications retrieved initially, we selected 45 publications for thorough analysis. We identified, analyzed and categorized factors that are considered to influence the understandability of process models as studied in the literature using empirical methods. We also analyzed the indicators that are used to quantify process model understandability. Results: Our analysis identifies several gaps in the field, as well as issues of inconsistent findings regarding the effect of some factors, unbalanced emphasis on certain indicators, and methodological concerns. Conclusions: The existing research calls for comprehensive empirical studies to contribute to a better understanding of the factors of process model understandability. Our study is a comprehensive source for researchers working on the understandability of process models and related fields, and a useful guide for practitioners aiming to generate understandable process models.

show abstract

“…Our work yields important insights into the difficulties that engineers face when trying to understand the implications that previous security incident reports have for their own organisations. There have been numerous empirical studies to evaluate the usability of graphical notations, including Entity-Relationship diagrams [44], UML [45,46] etc. However, as far as we are aware, there have been no previous studies to assess the strengths and weaknesses of graphical notations to help transfer the lessons learned from previous security incidents.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving the exchange of lessons learned in security incident reports: case studies in the privacy of electronic patient records

He

¹

,

Johnson

²

,

Yu

³

2015

J Trust Manag

2

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The increasing use of Electronic Health Records has been mirrored by a similar rise in the number of security incidents where confidential information has inadvertently been disclosed to third parties. These problems have been compounded by an apparent inability to learn from previous violations; similar security incidents have been observed across Europe, North America and Asia. This has resulted in the loss of confidence and trust of the public towards the organisations' ability to protect the patients' private information. The Generic Security Template (G.S.T.) has been proposed to communicate security lessons learned from previous security incidents. This paper conducts a series of empirical studies to evaluate the usability of the G.S.T. The first study compares the G.S.T. with the conventional text-based security incident reports. The two methods were compared in term of the users' ability to identify a number of lessons learned from investigations into previous incidents involving the disclosure of healthcare records. The study showed that the graphical approach resulted in higher accuracy in terms of number of correct answers generated by participants. However, subjective feedback raised further questions about the usability of the G.S.T. as the readers of security incident reports try to interpret the lessons that can increase the security of patient data. The second study further evaluates the usability of the G.S.T. using the Cognitive Dimensions and identifies some aspects that need to be improved.

show abstract

“…There have been numerous empirical studies to evaluate the usability of graphical notations, including Entity-Relationship diagrams [44], UML [45,46] etc. However, as far as we are aware, there have been no previous studies to assess the strengths and weaknesses of graphical notations to help transfer the lessons learned from previous security incidents.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving the Exchange of Lessons Learned in Security Incident Reports: Case Studies in the Privacy of Electronic Patient Records

He

¹

,

Johnson

²

,

Lyu

³

et al. 2014

IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The increasing use of Electronic Health Records has been mirrored by a similar rise in the number of security incidents where confidential information has inadvertently been disclosed to third parties. These problems have been compounded by an apparent inability to learn from previous violations; similar security incidents have been observed across Europe, North America and Asia. This has resulted in the loss of confidence and trust of the public towards the organisations' ability to protect the patients' private information. The Generic Security Template (G.S.T.) has been proposed to communicate security lessons learned from previous security incidents. This paper conducts a series of empirical studies to evaluate the usability of the G.S.T. The first study compares the G.S.T. with the conventional text-based security incident reports. The two methods were compared in term of the users' ability to identify a number of lessons learned from investigations into previous incidents involving the disclosure of healthcare records. The study showed that the graphical approach resulted in higher accuracy in terms of number of correct answers generated by participants. However, subjective feedback raised further questions about the usability of the G.S.T. as the readers of security incident reports try to interpret the lessons that can increase the security of patient data. The second study further evaluates the usability of the G.S.T. using the Cognitive Dimensions and identifies some aspects that need to be improved.

show abstract

Quality and comprehension of UML interaction diagrams-an experimental comparison

Cited by 24 publications

References 16 publications

Factors influencing the understandability of process models: A systematic literature review

Factors influencing the understandability of process models: A systematic literature review

Improving the exchange of lessons learned in security incident reports: case studies in the privacy of electronic patient records

Improving the Exchange of Lessons Learned in Security Incident Reports: Case Studies in the Privacy of Electronic Patient Records

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About