The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a standard language adopted by the Object Management Group (OMG) for writing object-oriented (OO) descriptions of software systems. UML allows the analyst to add class-level and system-level constraints. However, UML does not describe how to check the correctness of these constraints. Recent studies have shown that Symbolic Model Checking can effectively verify large software specifications. In this thesis, we investigate how to use model checking to verify constraints of UML specifications. We describe the process of specifying, translating and verifying UML specifications for an elevator example. We use the Cadence Symbolic Model Verifier (SMV) to verify the system properties. We demonstrate how to write a UML specification that can be easily translated to SMV. We propose a set of rules and guidelines to translate UML specifications to SMV, and then use these to translate a non-trivial UML elevator specification to SMV. We look at errors detected throughout the specification, translation and verification process, to see how well they reveal errors, ambiguities and omissions in the user requirements.

There are many different techniques and notations for extracting architecturally interesting information from the source code of existing software systems. This process is known as reverse engineering. One current problem with reverse engineering techniques is that models of software systems cannot easily be transferred from one notation and storage format to another. We refer to this as the problem of bridging <em>technical spaces</em>. <br /><br /> In this work, we approach the issue of bridging between the SWAG technical space and the UML technical space. The SWAG technical space, named after the Software Architecture Group at the University of Waterloo, consists of fact extractors, fact manipulators, schemas, and a fact storage language - the Tuple-Attribute language (TA). The UML technical space consists of the UML metamodel, the XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) format for encoding UML models, and various UML modeling tools. We have designed and implemented a plugin for MagicDraw UML, which will import, export, and merge between XMI-encoded UML models and TA-encoded Function-Level Schema models. <br /><br /> We document evidence of what is referred to as a <em>Bridge Domain</em> - a technical space which exists between two encodable spaces. The metamodels of the two notation languages that we have focused on are very rich and flexible, but neither technical space is capable of fully expressing an accurate architectural model of any given software system; however, each technical space is capable of maintaining certain semantic information relevant to that technical space through multiple merge operations.

The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is widely used by software engineers as the basis of analysis and design in software development. However, UML ignores human factors in the course of software development because of its strong emphasis on the internal structure and functionality of the application. This thesis presents a method of mapping human-computer interaction (HCI) requirement specifications generated by usability engineering (UE) methodologies (e.g. Putting Usability First (PUF)) into UML specifications. These two sets of requirement specification are specified, using Extensible Markup Language (XML) so that HCI requirement specifications can be integrated into UML ones. A Mapping Tool was developed to facilitate the creation of mappings between PUF XML tags and XMI tags. The Mapping Tool was used to create mappings between PUF and UML requirement specifications. This mapping process and its outputs were evaluated to demonstrate that the tool worked. The results of the evaluation show that the HCI requirement specification represented by the PUF XML tags can improve the UML specification by adding them into the XMI tags.

Software testing is a vital part of the software development process, usually implemented at the coding stage, and costly. Due to the increased use of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and Model Driven Architecture (MDA) approach in systems analysis and design, Model-Based Testing has been discussed as a prominent solution for software testing to reduce the cost of software testing. Prior researches proposed an integrated method which utilizes the artifacts from the Platform Independent Model (PIM) to construct the test paths and generate the test cases. This study develops a methodology which extracting the information from PIM (e.g., Sequence Diagram and Class diagram) to generate the test cases directly. The research methodology is articulated using the design science research methodology. A usability evaluation is performed to demonstrate its applicability. With this methodology, the test cases can be easily generated; thereby reducing the cost and enhancing the efficiency of Model-Based Testing.

¡@¡@With the rapid advance of information technology, embedded systems are becoming mature technology and have penetrated into most of the equipment. On the other hand, the unified modeling language (UML) has become a standard modeling language in object-oriented systems analysis and design. Over the past few years a considerable effort has been made in modeling the platform independent model (PIM) with UML for business information systems. However, the detailed guideline for modeling the PIM of embedded systems is lacking. ¡@¡@To alleviate the forgoing problem, this study proposed a PIM modeling methodology for embedded systems. This includes the use of sequence diagram, state machine diagram, timing diagram and class diagram for behavior and static modeling. For each diagram, the detailed modeling processes and rules are described. The research methodology is articulated using the design science research methodology. A usability evaluation is performed to demonstrate its applicability with a real-world embedded system case. With this proposed method, the system developer can easily model the PIM of embedded systems, and thereby enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of system development.

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) approach has become the mainstream of today¡¦s systems development technique. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is becoming the major tool for modeling the platform independent model (PIM) of a SOA system. Once the PIM is constructed, the results can then be transformed into its platform specific model based on the model driven architecture (MDA) approach and a specific platform. To develop a SOA system, the developer can then use the platform and choose the proper components to construct services and then business processes. However, the detailed guideline for this type of construction based on a specific platform is lacking. Therefore, this study presents a methodology which provides guidelines for the construction from components, service to business process for a SOA system based on the IBM WebSphere platform. The research methodology is articulated using the design science research methodology. A usability evaluation with a hypothesized case is performed to demonstrate its applicability. The results indicated that with this proposed method, the system developer can effectively use the IBM WebSphere platform to construct the business process based on the PIM of a SOA system.

The completeness and correctness of requirement modeling is the crucial factor that affecting the success of the system development. Use case diagram is the standard tool for modeling the use requirement for the objected-oriented systems analysis and design. However, to model the sequence diagram in the platform independent model (PIM) stage is still not a straightforward task to identify objects, operations and their relationships from the use case diagram. Robustness analysis has been proposed to bridge this gap between the user requirement modeling and the PIM modeling. However, the detailed guideline for the robustness analysis is lacking, while it is important for designer to enhance the completeness and correctness of the user requirement modeling. To alleviate the forgoing problem, we proposed that use case diagram, activity diagram and robustness diagram are used to represent the use requirement. Once a use case diagram is constructed, the activity diagram is used to describe the activity flow and the associated input/output of each use case. Finally, the robustness analysis with the guideline proposed is used to help the identification of boundary, control, and entity objects and enhance the completeness of the user requirement. The outcome can then be used to construct a sequence diagram in the PIM. A real-world case is presented to illustrate the feasibility of using the proposed method. With this methodology, the system developer can enhance the completeness and correctness of user requirement efficiently and thereby reduce the risk of success development failure.

¡@Business process doesn¡¦t change with technology or business objectives following with the change of environment outside enterprises. Hence, enterprises require business process improvement or BPR to improve the existing business processes. When enterprises demand business process improvement or BPR, they can¡¦t analyze and improve business process without business process modeling. Choosing an adequate tool form numerous business process modeling and analysis tools is an important work. Therefore, author chooses 4 mature tools, ARIS, IDEF, UML and INCOME to discuss. ¡@In my thesis, author enumerate the advantages and comment of each tool at first, then using a material requiring and purchasing to stock process as an example to prove the advantages. Then, Based on the 4 perspectives concluded by Curtis and Kellner, et al. to develop further factors under each perspective. Concluding the evaluating criteria under each factor to evaluate business process modeling tools. And to present each tools about business process modeling.

Due to the fact that the environment which business confront is very dynamic, so the business require the software to reduce the response time, provide the high quality, and supply the flexible modeling process and high maintainability. In order to meet the requirement, a new software solution is emerged. Component-based software engineering is a method to integrate existed component to produce faster speed, lower cost and higher quality software. And it is concerned with the rapid assembly of systems from components where components and frameworks have certified properties; and these certified properties provide the basis for predicting the properties of systems built from components. Therefore, component based software engineering replace the position belong to traditional software engineering progressively, it become the next generation software engineering paradigm. Because businesses want to transform their requirement to be final components, so the component-based software engineering must have component modeling methodology in the system analysis stage. For this reason, the advantage and disadvantage of the component modeling methodology makes a very deep influence on component-based software engineering. And after the survey we made, we discover the greater parts of the existed component modeling methodology have a lot of defects, for example: the modeling method stay at abstract level, lack of clear and definite modeling rules, short of consistence of process document and can¡¦t meet the good component modeling characteristics. Fortunately, in our surveyed methodology, we discover the ¡§UML Component¡¨ is a component modeling methodology which can meet the good component modeling characteristics and have the develop potential. But the ¡§UML Component¡¨ methodology still has some problem, for example: lack of explicit component identify rules, complete tools support and simply modeling process. Due to these reasons, our study provides three solutions to refine and extend the ¡§UML Components¡¨ methodology. First of all, we utilize the use case identify method by [§d¤¯©M2002]¡Bthe concept of ¡§Fan-in and Fan-out¡¨ by [Marquis2002] and the use case association transform method to refine the problem of component modeling rules. Secondly, we employ data glossary, data relation matrix and operation reference matrix to improve the problem of component modeling tools. Finally, we redesign the process model which includes four stages as follows, requirement acquisition, component identification, component interaction and component specification to resolve the irrational parts of original modeling process. With this refined methodology, the system analysts can follow the stand modeling rules and process. In the other hand, the system developer also can develop the system which meet the business requirement exactly, ensure the component quality and speed up the software develop rate.

The global business is facing the intensive competitive environment. To overcome the competition, most enterprises contentiously try different information systems to strengthen their competition and to extent their businesses. In order to execute the enterprises marketing strategies effectively, business organization applies various software from in-house development to standard package software either made in Taiwan or made in nations. However, while implementing the information system into specific project, this software caused many obstructions in both project time framing design and project cost control. To exam this problem, we found there is no appropriate requirement and package software or tool to manage the system gaps analysis. The main purpose of this thesis is to solve the present package software problem and develop a method to meet the enterprise needs in system difference analysis. We use the Unified Module Language (UML), use case diagram, drawing , activity diagram, use case description and decision table to complete the difference analysis between package software and specific project. Applying this method, the user not only can control the difference between the requirement system and object system precisely, but also build a communication channel among the users, system analysis, and programmers. In addition, the method provides a trend of customized system to succeed the project on line