ITcon Vol. 28, pg. 360-384, http://www.itcon.org/2023/19

Automated translation from domain knowledge to software model: EXCEL2UML in the tunneling domain

DOI:10.36680/j.itcon.2023.019
submitted:February 2023
revised:July 2023
published:July 2023
editor(s):Žiga Turk
authors:Galina Paskaleva, Dipl.-Ing.,
TU Wien, Institute of Information Systems Engineering, Business Informatics Group, Favoritenstr. 9-11, Vienna, A-1040, Austria;
[email protected]; www.big.tuwien.ac.at

Alexandra Mazak-Huemer, Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Mag. Dr.techn.,
JKU Linz, Department of Business Informatics - Software Engineering, Altenberger Strasse 69, Science Park 3, Linz, A-4040, Austria;
[email protected]; https://se.jku.at/alexandra-mazak-huemer/

Marlène Villeneuve, Associate Professor, PhD
Montanuniversität Leoben, Chair of Subsurface Engineering, Erzherzog Johann-Straße 3, Leoben, A-8700, Austria;
[email protected]; https://pure.unileoben.ac.at

Johannes Waldhart, BSc,
iC Consulenten Ziviltechniker GesmbH, Schönbrunner Str. 297, Vienna, A-1120, Austria;
[email protected]
summary:The development of software tools is a collaborative process involving both the domain experts and the software engineers. This requires efficient communication considering different expertise and perspectives. Additionally, the two groups utilize language and communication tools in disparate ways. This, in turn, may lead to hidden misunderstandings in the requirement analysis phase and potentially result in implementation problems later on, that is difficult and costly to correct. In this paper, we demonstrate the above mentioned challenge via a use case from the tunneling domain. In particular, during the requirement analysis phase for a software capable of handling the data model of the subsoil. The domain experts in the field can best express the complexity of their domain by describing its artifacts, which in most cases are incomprehensible to the software engineers. We outline a method that interleaves requirement analysis and software modeling to enable an iterative increase of the accuracy and completeness of the information extracted from those artifacts and integrated into a flexible software model, which can produce testable software code automatically. Furthermore, we present a prototypical implementation of our method and a preliminary evaluation of the approach.
keywords:domain models, requirement analysis, data model, software engineering
full text: (PDF file, 1.706 MB)
citation:Paskaleva G, Mazak-Huemer A, Villeneuve M, Waldhart J (2023). Automated translation from domain knowledge to software model: EXCEL2UML in the tunneling domain, ITcon Vol. 28, pg. 360-384, https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2023.019
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