Special Issue Paper

A survey and evaluation of tool features for understanding reverse-engineered sequence diagrams

  1. C. Bennett1,
  2. D. Myers1,
  3. M.-A. Storey1,*,
  4. D. M. German1,
  5. D. Ouellet2,
  6. M. Salois2,
  7. P. Charland2

Article first published online: 29 JUL 2008

DOI: 10.1002/smr.372

Issue

Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution: Research and Practice

Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution: Research and Practice

Special Issue: Special Issue on Program Comprehension through Dynamic Analysis (PCODA)

Volume 20, Issue 4, pages 291–315, July/August 2008

Additional Information

How to Cite

Bennett, C., Myers, D., Storey, M.-A., German, D. M., Ouellet, D., Salois, M. and Charland, P. (2008), A survey and evaluation of tool features for understanding reverse-engineered sequence diagrams. Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution: Research and Practice, 20: 291–315. doi: 10.1002/smr.372

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Computer Science, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada

  2. 2

    Defence R&D Canada–Valcartier, Québec, QC, Canada

*Department of Computer Science, University of Victoria, Engineering Office Wing 348, 3800 Finnerty Road (Ring Road), Victoria, BC, Canada V8P 5C2

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 30 JUL 2008
  2. Article first published online: 29 JUL 2008
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 7 JUN 2008
  4. Manuscript Revised: 30 APR 2008
  5. Manuscript Received: 10 JAN 2008

Funded by

  • Copyright © Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada as Represented by the Minister of National Defence (2008). Grant Number: W7701-5-2677/001/QCL

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Keywords:

  • sequence diagrams;
  • reverse engineering;
  • software understanding;
  • tool survey;
  • user study

Abstract

Sequence diagrams can be valuable aids to software understanding. However, they can be extremely large and hard to understand in spite of using modern tool support. Consequently, providing the right set of tool features is important if the tools are to help rather than hinder the user. This paper surveys research and commercial sequence diagram tools to determine the features they provide to support program understanding. Although there has been significant effort in developing these tools, many of them have not been evaluated using human subjects. To begin to address this gap, a preliminary study was performed with a specially designed sequence diagram tool that implements the features found during the survey. On the basis of an analysis of the study results, we discuss the features that were found to be useful and relate these to the tasks performed. It concludes by proposing how future tools can be improved to better support the exploration of large sequence diagrams. Copyright © 2008 Crown in the right of Canada. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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