ABSTRACT

In terms of supporting so ware development activities, tools for supporting the so - ware design process are possibly one of the most challenging forms of application to create. Indeed, it can be argued that tool developers have o en preferred to provide support for highly constrained models (such as plan-driven development) simply because supporting real design activities is so dicult. So ware design itself involves manipulating and evolving ideas about invisible elements that have both static and dynamic properties [1]; the process is generally opportunistic in nature [2-5]; and the notations used to record the outcomes lack sound rationale for their form [6]. Indeed, although the unied modeling language (UML) is widely regarded as a “standard,” a systematic literature review that we recently conducted to examine empirical studies of the UML indicates that there are many issues and questions about its notational forms and their usefulness [7].