Model Development Guidelines and Validation Support for UML-RT

Abstract

Software development guidelines are a set of rules which can help improve the quality of software. These rules are defined on the basis of experience gained by the software development community over time. This research focuses on finding a set of design guidelines for model-based development of complex real-time embedded software systems. To be precise, we propose nine design conventions, three design patterns and twenty antipatterns for developing UML-RT models. These guidelines have been identified based on our analysis of around 100 UML-RT models from industry and academia. Most of the guidelines are explained with the help of examples, and standard templates from the current state of the art are used for documenting the design rules.

Tool support is provided for a subset of the proposed guidelines in the form an Eclipse plug-in. This allows UML-RT practitioners to detect any occurrences of the supported design flaws automatically. Evaluation is done involving practitioners from both industry and academia to determine the utility of the proposed guidelines to the UML-RT community and the effectiveness and user-friendliness of the provided tool support.