Streamlining scenario modeling with Model-Driven Development: A case study

Scenario modeling can be realized through different perspectives. In UML, scenarios are often modeled with activity models, in an early stage of development. Later, sequence diagrams are used to detail object interactions. The migration from activity diagrams to sequence diagrams is a repetitive and error-prone task. Model-Driven Development (MDD) can help streamlining this process, through transformation rules. Since the information in the activity model is insufficient to generate the corresponding complete sequence model, manual refinements are required. Our goal is to compare the relative effort of building the sequence diagrams manually with that of building them semi-automatically. Our results show a decrease in the number of operations required to build and refine the sequence model of approximately 64% when using MDD, when compared to the manual approach.