Solving a Multi-criteria Decision Problem to Efficiently Handle UML Model Inconsistencies

Abstract

Nowadays, every business is heavily depending on software. However, designing and developing software is a very serious engineering challenge since software systems are growing in size and complexity. This gives rise to many inconsistencies in software design. To deal with this issue, researchers have been working for many years on different model inconsistency management activities, namely the detection, the diagnosis and the handling of those inconsistencies. This work focuses on handling UML model inconsistencies by proposing an AHP-based method aiming to help modelers choosing the right repair action that fits well their modeling objectives and strategies. The proposed method helps structuring the selection of the most appropriate repair action among a set of alternatives. It also represents and quantifies the criteria elements of this decision problem, relates these elements to overall goals and evaluates and ranks alternative solutions. The efficiency of the method is evaluated using different inconsistency examples through different situations. The obtained results show that modelers can have credible propositions to make decisions in accordance with their initial objectives.