UCDiff: Difference Detection in Use Case Models of Healthcare System

Development of large-scale healthcare software projects essentially need the efficient management of the created software artifacts during software development process. In such projects different versions of an artifact are created at different times. Traditional software configuration management systems, such as Git, Subversion (SVN), etc., are designed for later phases of software development, which mainly handle the source code document. These systems are unable to perform difference detection and version management tasks on models such as unified modeling language diagrams. UML use case model is used for capturing functional requirements at analyses phase. Different versions of the use case model are created during analyses phase. This paper addresses the detection of differences between two versions of a use case model. In order to perform difference detection, we need to perform three main tasks, i. e., extract the contents of the model, comparison of models and difference representation. Most of the existing approaches in literature of model comparison deal with UML class diagrams. To the best of our knowledge, so far no appropriate approach addresses difference computation of use case model. Existing approaches are not applicable on use case model due to different semantics of use case model. In this research, the concept of model-based software configuration management (SCM) for use case difference detection is proposed. The use case models are created in an open source tool, starUML. The proposed difference algorithm is applied on intermediate tree structure representation of models. As a case study, different versions of a patient appointment healthcare system is used to evaluate different evaluation parameters, such as accuracy, domain independence, high conceptual level and tool independence.

UCDiff: Difference Detection in Use Case Models of Healthcare System

Development of large-scale healthcare software projects essentially need the efficient management of the created software artifacts during software development process. In such projects different versions of an artifact are created at different times. Traditional software configuration management systems, such as Git, Subversion (SVN), etc., are designed for later phases of software development, which mainly handle the source code document. These systems are unable to perform difference detection and version management tasks on models such as unified modeling language diagrams. UML use case model is used for capturing functional requirements at analyses phase. Different versions of the use case model are created during analyses phase. This paper addresses the detection of differences between two versions of a use case model. In order to perform difference detection, we need to perform three main tasks, i. e., extract the contents of the model, comparison of models and difference representation. Most of the existing approaches in literature of model comparison deal with UML class diagrams. To the best of our knowledge, so far no appropriate approach addresses difference computation of use case model. Existing approaches are not applicable on use case model due to different semantics of use case model. In this research, the concept of model-based software configuration management (SCM) for use case difference detection is proposed. The use case models are created in an open source tool, starUML. The proposed difference algorithm is applied on intermediate tree structure representation of models. As a case study, different versions of a patient appointment healthcare system is used to evaluate different evaluation parameters, such as accuracy, domain independence, high conceptual level and tool independence.

Software Requirement Specification Based on a Gray Box for Embedded Systems: A Case Study of a Mobile Phone Camera Sensor Controller

One of the most widely used models for specifying functional requirements is a use case model. The viewpoint of the use case model that views a system as a black box focuses on descriptions of external interactions between the system and related environments. However, for embedded systems that do not disclose most implementation logics outside the system, black box-based use case models may experience the drawback that considerable information that must be defined for system developments is omitted. To solve this shortcoming, several studies have been proposed on the use of kind of white box technique in which the dynamic behaviors of embedded systems are defined first using a state diagram and the results are reflected in the requirement specifications. However, white box-based modeling has not been widely adopted by developers due to tasks that require a lot of time in the requirement analysis phase in the initial phase of the software development life cycle. This study proposes a gray box-based requirement specification method as a trade-off between two contradictory elements (the amount of information required to develop an embedded system and the cost of the effort required during the requirement analysis phase) in terms of the two approaches, the black and the white box-based models. The proposed method suggests that an appropriate depth level of embedded system modeling is required to define the requirements. This study also proposes a mechanism that automatically generates an application programming interface for each component based on the created model. The proposed method was applied to the development of a camera sensor controller in a mobile phone, and the case results proved the feasibility of the method through discussion of the application results.