Distributed Collaborative Modeling Support System for UML diagrams

Summary form only given, as follows. The complete presentation was not made available for publication as part of the conference proceedings. Along with this trend, distributed collaborative modeling supporting systems have been proposed. These systems provide a UML diagrams editor and some sort of communication tools such as bulletin board system, annotation, and so on. However, UML diagrams and conversation contents the systems generate are not associated with each other. Therefore it is difficult to trace rationale with respect to elements of the diagram. The authors developed a distributed collaborative modeling supporting system for UML diagrams, called Libra-on-Chat, which solved the issue. Libra-on-Chat provides UML diagrams editor, chat-based communication tool, and their association facility. As the result of experiment, the authors found that the system allows participants to focus on elements in a diagram under discussion. It also enables developers to grasp design rationale in reviewing the diagram. On the other hand, that awareness information should be provided was recognized.