More Than Two Decades of Research on Verification of UML Class Models: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Error checking is easy and inexpensive in the initial stages as compared to later stages due to when the development cycle precedes the development cost and efforts also increase. UML class model is a key element of modern software methodologies and creates in the initial stage of software development. Therefore, error detection and rectification of the UML class model may save software development costs and time. This paper presents an overview of UML Class model verification approaches and identifies open issues, current research trends, and other improvement areas. This study uses a systematic literature review as an investigation method with six research questions and assesses 65 papers dated January 1997 to December 2020. From 2124 published research papers, 65 papers are selected and distributed into 7 studies. This work provides an analysis of verification approaches and the automation level of proposed approaches. As a result, it is found that the existing UML class model verification methods provide great efforts to check correctness. However, in some situations (when dealing with large and complex models), they consume a significant amount of time and do not support many important features of the UML class model.

Keywords

• Class model
• UML
• model formalisation
• model verification
• UML-OCL models