Abstract Layers and Generic Elements as a Basis for Expressing Multidimensional Software Knowledge

Abstract

Enormous intellectual efforts are being invested into producing software in its executable form or, more precisely, a form from which this executable form can be automatically derived, commonly known as a source form (usually code, but may be a model, too). On the other hand, it is inherently complex to restore the ideas upon which software has been built. Moreover, it is usually not possible to produce software in its source form directly without producing a number of documents, diagrams, or schemes. All these artifacts, including the program code, represent software knowledge necessary for maintaining existing software and for building further systems in a given domain. But these software knowledge sources are disconnected from each other making it hard to navigate between them and to devise conclusions based on their relatedness, which is essential for their effective use. In this paper, a new approach to versatile graphical software modeling based on abstract layers and generic elements and its use in modeling multidimensional software knowledge and interrelating its pieces is proposed. The approach is supported by a prototype tool called InterSKnow, which targets mainly internal representation. This enabled to evaluate the approach from two perspectives: The efficiency of searching for software knowledge in software models and its comprehension. The results are generally plausible to the approach proposed here compared to Enterprise Architect as a representative of traditional, state-of-the-art software modeling tools.