Analyzing the Modern Tool-Supported UML-Based Static Reverse Engineering

Abstract

Today, software-engineering research and industry alike recognize the need for practical tools to support reverse engineering behavior. Most of the well-known CASE tools support reverse engineering in some way. The Uni- fied Modeling Language (UML) has emerged as the de facto standard for graphically on behalf of the design of object-oriented software systems. However, there does not yet exist a normal scheme for representing the reverse engineered models of these systems. The various CASE tools usually adopt proprietary extensions to UML and, as a result, it is tricky, or even not possible, to ensure that model semantics remains explicit when working with different tools at the same time. In this paper, we examine the capabilities of the two most successful industrial-strength CASE-tools in reverse engineering the static structure of software systems and evaluate them to the results produced by two academic prototypes. The comparisons are carried out both manually and involuntarily using a research prototype for manipulating and comparing UML models.

Keywords: UML, static reverse engineering, empirical study, tool assessment