A case study on the application of UML in legacy development

Abstract

Model-driven development with UML is becoming a de facto standard in industry, but although much of today's software development is about enhancing existing systems, there is no well-defined process for model-driven development in the context of legacy systems. To ensure the relevance of research on model-driven development with UML, there is a need for studies of actual use of UML in software development companies. As part of a software process initiative, we conducted a case study in a large development project where some of the development teams enhanced existing components, while other teams developed software from scratch. The results from this case study showed that those who applied UML in modelling and enhancing legacy software experienced more challenges and fewer benefits from the use of UML than did the developers who modelled and developed new software. Overall our results show a need for better methodological support on applying UML in legacy development. Copyright 2006 ACM.