Empirical Evaluation of Reading Techniques for UML Models Inspection

This paper reports on an experiment comparing three reading techniques: ad hoc, UML-HAZOP and scenario-based applied during inspection of UML models. UML-HAZOP is a reading technique adopted from the domain of safety analysis of critical systems. The technique and its variants applied in experiment are outlined in the paper. Design, a way of conducting and results processing of the experiment are described. The results include comparison of effectiveness and efficiency (for pairs) and analysis of number of reported defects as a function of time. The experiment revealed that although pair effectiveness was rather similar for all techniques, for pair efficiency UML-HAZOP had the best performance.