Usability of Analysis Sequence Diagram

The Unified Modeling Language (UML) has become a widely-accepted modeling language for object-oriented software development since it became the industry standard in 1997. Although researchers and practitioners have extensively studied various aspects of UML in the last couple of years, they have not yet explored the usability of the analysis sequence diagram. Drawing analysis sequence diagrams is often found to be very challenging for students in systems analysis and design classes even though basic guidelines are provided in popular textbooks. Given the important role of analysis sequence diagrams in object-oriented systems analysis and design, there is the need for an effective sequence diagram modeling technique that can facilitate novices in developing these diagrams. This paper presents a research framework which is developed based on difficulties students encounter in drawing sequence diagrams, identified in the qualitative exploratory study conducted in an undergraduate systems analysis and design class. The proposed framework will enable the design of a modeling technique and laboratory experiments to evaluate the efficacy of the new technique.