Using the Tropos approach to inform the UML design: An experiment report

Abstract

Tropos is an agent-oriented software engineering (AOSE) methodology, based on the notion of actors, with goals and plans, and spanning all the phases of software development, from the very early phases of requirements analysis down to the actual implementation. The effectiveness of such methodology in the production of better design documents is evaluated in this study, by investigating the null hypothesis "using the Tropos Methodology before the analysis and design phases can produce a more accurate and complete set of UML diagrams than when no such technology is used". The evaluation of a real case scenario was given as part of a coursework in a BSc module at the University of East London, and the Tropos and UML diagrams were requested as part of the deliverables. The results of how students performed in such tasks, and how the Tropos approach helped in the drawing of the UML diagrams, are presented here. The results show that generally, and confined to this experiment, the Tropos methodology has not helped in the design of the UML diagrams, and that students failed in understanding the link between the two methodologies.