Evaluation of UML tools using an end-to-end application
Date
2006-03-29
Authors
Thomas, Shibi Mary
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Any software project goes through the different stages of a Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Like any other commercial product,
software has a design stage but this stage is unique and critical to software due to its soft nature. A system that is given careful thought at the design phase results in a correct and complete system and adheres to software design principle. The “Unified Modelling Language” (UML) is a standard modelling language for object-oriented systems. Many tools are currently available to support the design and implementation of software.
Generating skeletal code from a design brings down the implementation time considerably.
This research report presents a list of criteria against which one can compare different UML tools, and puts forward a rating system where
decisions can be made on them. It presents a comparison between four UML tools: ArgoUML, Rational Rose, Together Control Centre, and
MasterCraft. An end-to-end application was developed on each of these tools as part of the evaluation process. During the design phase a detailed design was done using the ICONIX process. The different features of an ideal UML tool is analysed and used to evaluate the four selected tools. Of the four tools, Rational Rose, Together Control Centre, MasterCraft are offthe-shelf modelling softwares whereas ArgoUML is an open source modelling software. From the evaluation it is observed that Together Control Centre attains a high score with Rational Rose following just behind. MasterCraft comes third. Argo UML has the least score but it has the advantage of being an open source software.
Description
Master of Science in Engineering - Engineering
Keywords
evaluation, uml, end-to-end, application