JP2008287305A - Class figure creation support device, its program and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To support the creation of a class figure based on a unified policy. <P>SOLUTION: A specification/design document accepting part 5 accepts created specifications/design documents concerning software to be developed, and extracts sequence figures from among them, and a class generation part 6 classifies the sequence figures for every type of functions, and generates a class figure by defining management information showing objects to be operated by the functions in the classified sequence figures as classes, and an attribute generation part 7 acquires the parameter of a message from the sequence figures, and adds the parameter to the class figure as the attributes of the corresponding class, and a relevance generation part 8 extracts the set of classes having the same attributes from the class figure to which the attributes are added, and generates relevance between the classes. Thus, it is possible to unify a creation policy. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for supporting creation of a class diagram representing software management information in software development.

  In software development, create a specification document that shows the requirements of the software to be developed, create a design document that defines the software structure / architecture based on the specification document with specific implementation in mind. The final implementation is based on the original. These specifications and design documents describe the functions of the software. Software functions are represented by two aspects: a static aspect that expresses management information managed by software by classes and attributes, and a dynamic aspect that expresses software operations by messages and methods. Such information and operations are described in a document using a natural language or a diagram using a model language (UML: Unified Modeling Language).

  Class diagrams representing software management information are used to represent the static aspects of software. The class diagram includes a “class” that represents a set of management information, an “attribute” that represents management information, and an “association” that represents a relationship between classes. FIG. 1 shows an example of a class diagram, in which “device” class, “device name” and “IP address” as attributes of “device” class, and the relationship between “device” class and “port” class are described. ing.

  There were the following problems concerning the creation of this class diagram.

  Problem 1: The creation policy differs depending on the person who creates the class diagram. As a result, it may take time to try to understand and modify a class diagram created by another person. As a result, it is difficult to efficiently proceed with development when a new software is created by a plurality of people or when a modification for adding a function is performed.

  Problem 2: If there is insufficient human knowledge to create a class diagram, a class diagram containing an error may be created. As a result, there is an extra cost for the correction.

  Since such a problem occurs, it takes time to create a specification and a design document, and there has been a problem that software development is costly / long.

  Non-Patent Document 1 shows points to be noted when creating a class diagram and the concept of creation, but the implementation is left up to the creator and is not clearly unified. In addition, when the creator's knowledge is insufficient, there is a possibility that an excessive or insufficient class to be created may occur.

Therefore, a method for supporting the creation of a class diagram is necessary in order to solve such problems related to the creation of a class diagram and to create a class diagram with a unified policy without error.
Inoue Itsuki “Diagram UML Thorough Utilization” Shosuisha, 2005, pp. 50-65

  The present invention solves a problem that a creation policy differs depending on a creator or a problem that includes an error due to lack of knowledge when creating a class diagram expressing software management information in software development, and is based on a unified policy and The purpose is to support the creation of error-free class diagrams.

  A solution is provided for each of the problems described above.

  ・ Solution 1 (Means for Problem 1): In order to solve the problem that the creation policy differs for each creator, other specifications and design documents created during software development are used as a standard to solve other specifications. And generate class diagrams based on information uniquely obtained from design documents. As a result, a unified class diagram can be created without reflecting the policy differences between creators.

  -Solution 2 (Means for Problem 2): As a solution to another problem that the creator's knowledge is insufficient, a knowledge system used by skilled developers and software developers in general is constructed in advance as a conceptual system. Acquire knowledge from the concept system and present it to the creator. Since the creator creates the class diagram while referring to the knowledge of the concept system, the creator can perform development while compensating for the lack of knowledge, and can prevent errors in the class diagram.

  First, the details of the solving means 1 will be described.

  In order to realize the solving means 1, the one representing the dynamic information in other specifications and design documents of software development that have been created in advance before creating the class diagram is used. A sequence diagram is used to represent the operation of the software. However, the means of the present invention is not limited to the sequence diagram.

  The sequence diagram is composed of “objects” representing software operating entities, “messages” between objects representing software operations, and “parameters” representing management information used in operations represented by messages. FIG. 2 shows an example of a sequence diagram, objects “Server” and “DB”, a message “device setting” representing an operation between the “Server” object and the “DB” object, and a “device setting” message. The parameters “device name” and “maximum bandwidth value” used in FIG.

  In software development, it is necessary to create sequence diagrams for the number of functions provided in software. These sequence diagrams can be classified into several types. “Registration” for registering information inside the software, “Search” for searching for information inside the software, “Change” for changing information inside the software, and “Deleting” information inside the software “ There are four types of “delete”. Management information operated by these four functions is generated as one class.

  FIG. 3 shows the generation of a class from the sequence diagram. Here, there are sequence diagrams of “register device”, “search for device”, “change device”, and “delete device”. Therefore, the management information “device” that is the target of the operation expressed in these sequence diagrams is generated as a class. Similarly, classes are also generated for “port” and “card”.

  After creating a class according to the above framework, class attributes are created as follows: In the sequence diagrams of “registration”, “search”, “change”, and “deletion”, the parameter of the message representing the operation of the software represents management information used in the operation. The management information is added to the attribute of the class created in a form corresponding to the sequence diagrams of “registration”, “search”, “change”, and “deletion”.

  FIG. 4 shows how class attributes are generated from a sequence diagram. Here, a sequence diagram of “search for a device” and a corresponding “device” class are shown. At this time, in the sequence diagram, management information “device ID” as a parameter of “search” message, management information “device name” as a parameter of “send” message, management information “bandwidth value” as a parameter of “set” message Therefore, the management information is added as an attribute of the “device” class.

  After creating attributes in the above framework, create associations between classes. When the same attribute is added to multiple classes, an association is generated between classes having the same attribute.

  FIG. 5 shows the generation of the class association from the sequence diagram. Here, the sequence diagram of “search for devices” and the sequence diagram of “register area” and the corresponding “device” class and “area” are shown. "Class" is shown. At this time, since the management information “area name” is used in each sequence diagram, “area name” exists as an attribute in both the “device” class and the “area” class. Therefore, an association is generated between the “device” class and the “area” class.

  Next, the details of the solving means 2 will be described.

  The conceptual system used in the solving means 2 is a systematized knowledge of work in which software is used and knowledge about software development. Specifically, it covers the concepts such as vocabulary, function, behavior, etc. used in the business, and explains the meaning of the concepts by specifying the relationship between the concepts. The structure of the concept system is composed of “concepts” and a set of “relationships” between the concepts, and each concept has “attributes”. A concept attribute is a collection of information that is likely to be used together when a certain attribute of the concept is used as software management information. FIG. 6 shows an example of the conceptual system.

  By creating a class diagram while referring to this conceptual system, the creator can compensate for the lack of knowledge.

  In preparation for referring to the conceptual system, the creator clarifies the meaning of the information included in the class diagrams generated on the basis of the sequence diagrams. A means of indicating the meaning of a class diagram is to associate class attributes with concept attributes of the concept scheme. However, not all attributes are associated with concepts in the concept scheme. This is because the conceptual system may include information that does not exist in the class diagram. The creator can know the information that the class should have by tracing this association from the class to the conceptual system.

  FIG. 7 shows how knowledge is acquired from a class and a concept system. Here, the attribute “device name” of the “device” class is associated with the “name” attribute of the concept “Equipment” of the concept system. If this relationship is traced from “device”, it can be seen that the concept “Equipment” has attributes of “id”, “serial Number”, “version” and “alarm Status” in addition to “name”. . The creator can refer to these attributes and notice that the “device” class lacks the corresponding attributes.

  By using the present invention, when creating a class diagram that expresses software management information in software development, it solves the problem that the creation policy differs depending on the creator or the problem that contains errors due to lack of knowledge, and unified policy Class class can be created without errors.

  FIG. 8 shows a class diagram creation support apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is an input unit, 2 is a display unit, 3 is a concept system creation unit, 4 is a concept system storage unit, 5 is a specification / design document reception unit, 6 is a class generation unit, 7 is an attribute generation unit, 8 is a relation generation unit, 9 is a concept system operation unit, 10 is a knowledge acquisition unit, and 11 is an attribute addition unit.

  The input unit 1 includes a keyboard, a mouse, and the like, and is used by the creator to input information and operations to each unit. The display unit 2 includes an image display device such as a liquid crystal display or a CRT, and is used for presenting information and operations input from the input unit 1 and processing results in each unit to the creator.

  The concept system creation unit 3 covers the concepts such as vocabulary, functions, behaviors, etc. used in the work related to the software to be developed in accordance with the information and operations input from the input unit 1, and represents the relationship between the concepts Create a system. The concept system storage unit 4 stores the concept system created by the concept system creation unit 3.

  The specification / design document receiving unit 5 is a specification / design document related to the software to be developed (read from a storage medium (not shown) or input from another device or the like via a communication medium). The created specification / design document is received, and a specification / design document representing the operation of the development target software, a sequence diagram in this case, is extracted from the specification / design document, and passed to the class generation unit 6.

  The class generation unit 6 classifies the sequence diagram for each type of function included in the development target software, here “registration”, “search”, “change”, and “deletion”. A class diagram having management information representing an object operated by the function in FIG. As a class is generated, and the generated class diagram is transferred to the attribute generation unit 7 together with the classified sequence diagram. At this time, only one overlapping class is generated.

  The attribute generation unit 7 acquires management information used in the operation of the software from the classified sequence diagram, here a message parameter, adds the parameter to the class diagram as an attribute of the corresponding class, and The class diagram to which the attribute is added is passed to the relation generation unit 8. At this time, only one attribute is duplicated for each class.

  The relationship generation unit 8 extracts a set of classes having the same attribute from the class diagram to which the attribute is added, generates a relationship between the classes, and passes the class diagram that generated the relationship to the concept system operation unit 9. .

  The concept system operation unit 9 reads the concept system related to the software to be developed from the concept system storage unit 4, displays it on the display unit 2 together with the class diagram, and classifies the class in the class diagram according to the operation input from the input unit 1. And the attribute included in the concept in the concept system are associated with each other, and the class diagram and the concept system are passed to the knowledge acquisition unit 10 together with the association information.

  Based on the association information, the class diagram, and the concept system, the knowledge acquisition unit 10 acquires an attribute that is not included in the associated class from the concept in which the attributes are associated with the class, and displays the attribute on the display unit 2.

  The attribute adding unit 11 adds an attribute to the class in the class diagram in accordance with the operation input from the input unit 1.

  FIG. 9 shows the operation sequence of the above-described apparatus of the present invention. In addition, the concept system creation unit 3 generates a concept system that represents the relationship between concepts used in the work related to the software to be developed in accordance with the information and operations input from the input unit 1 independently of the operation order. It is created and stored in the concept system storage unit 4.

  The above-described apparatus can also be realized on a well-known computer. At this time, the concept system storage unit 4 is configured by a storage device such as a hard disk in the computer, and a specification / design document reception unit 5, The class generation unit 6, attribute generation unit 7, association generation unit 8, concept system operation unit 9, knowledge acquisition unit 10, and attribute addition unit 11 are configured by a program corresponding to FIG.

  Hereinafter, a specific example of the class diagram creation support method by the apparatus of the present invention, in this case, when developing a software that manages Layer2Switch (L2SW), an example of creating a class diagram that represents management information of the software Will be described.

  First, using the concept system creation unit 3, a concept system in the business field of device management is created according to information and operations input from the input unit 1 and stored in the concept system storage unit 4. FIG. 10 shows the created conceptual system.

  Next, the specification / design document receiving unit 5 receives a created specification / design document related to device management, extracts a sequence diagram that is a specification / design document representing the operation of the software, and generates a class generation unit. 6 (s1).

Next, the class generation unit 6 classifies and extracts the received sequence diagram for each of “registration”, “search”, “change”, and “deletion”. Here, the following sequence diagram was taken out.
・ Register the building.
・ Delete the building.
・ Register L2SW.
Search for L2SW.
-Change L2SW.
-Delete L2SW.
・ Register the port.
-Delete the port.
・ Register SW connection.
-Delete the connection between SWs.
・ Register the line.
・ Search for a line.
・ Change the line.
-Delete the line.

  In addition, the class generation unit 6 stores management information representing objects to be operated by the functions in the classified sequence diagram, in this case, “building”, “L2SW”, “port”, “inter-SW connection”, and “line”. A class diagram as a class is generated, and this is sent to the attribute generation unit 7 together with the classified sequence diagram (s2). FIG. 11 shows the generated class diagram.

  Next, the attribute generation unit 7 acquires a message parameter from the classified sequence diagram, and adds the parameter to the class diagram as an attribute of the corresponding class.

  FIG. 12 shows an example in which a parameter of a message is acquired from the “Register L2SW” sequence diagram, and the parameter is added to the class diagram as an attribute of the corresponding class, that is, the “L2SW” class. Here, the parameters “device name”, “device ID”, “IP address” and “bill code” are acquired from the “Register L2SW” sequence diagram, and these are added as attributes of the corresponding “L2SW” class. ing.

  The attribute generation unit 7 repeats the above operation for all the sequence diagrams, and passes the class diagram to which the attribute is added to the association generation unit 8 (s3). FIG. 13 shows a class diagram in which attributes are added to all classes.

  Next, the relationship generation unit 8 extracts a set of classes having the same attribute from the class diagram to which the attribute is added, and generates a relationship between the classes. For example, in the example of FIG. 13, the “Bill” class and the “L2SW” class both have the attribute “Bill Code”, and therefore, an association is generated between the “Bill” class and the “L2SW” class. The relation generation unit 8 repeats the above operation for all corresponding class sets, and passes the class diagram that generated the relation to the concept system operation unit 9 (s4). FIG. 14 shows a class diagram after the association is generated.

  Next, the conceptual system operation unit 9 reads the conceptual system related to the development target software from the conceptual system storage unit 4, here the conceptual system shown in FIG. 10, and displays it on the display unit 2 together with the class diagram after the relation generation. To do. The concept system operation unit 9 associates attributes included in the class in the class diagram with attributes included in the concept in the concept system in accordance with the operation input from the input unit 1. For example, the author determines that the attribute “building name” of the “building” class is the attribute “name” of the concept “Building” that represents “a building where equipment and facilities are installed and operated”, and operates the input unit 1. And associate them. The concept system operation unit 9 repeats the above operation for the attribute in the corresponding class diagram and the attribute in the concept system, and passes the class diagram and the concept system together with the association information to the knowledge acquisition unit 10 (s5). . FIG. 15 shows the conceptual system and class diagram after association.

  Next, based on the association information, the class diagram, and the concept system, the knowledge acquisition unit 10 associates information that is likely to be used with the class diagram generated from the concept system, that is, attributes are associated with the class. Attributes not included in the associated class are acquired from the associated concept and displayed on the display unit 2 (s6).

  For example, the [L2SW] class is associated with the concept “Equipment”. The attributes “name”, “objectID”, and “ipAddress” of the concept “Equipment” are already used because they are associated with the attribute of “L2SW”. On the other hand, the attributes “Physical Alarm Status” and “serial Number” of the concept “Equipment” are not associated and are not extracted as management information of this software. Therefore, the knowledge acquisition unit 10 displays (presents) on the display unit 2 that these unrelated attributes are information that is highly likely to be used together in the “L2SW” class.

  Finally, the attribute adding unit 11 is used to add an attribute to the class in the class diagram in accordance with the operation input from the input unit 1 (s7). For example, as a result of examining the contents of the class diagram again with reference to the information presented from the knowledge acquisition unit 10 via the display unit 2, the attributes “device alarm state” and “serial number” corresponding to “physical Alarm Status” The creator determines that the attribute “serial number” corresponding to is an attribute of the “L2SW” class, and operates the input unit 1 to add them. FIG. 16 shows a class diagram after attribute addition.

  As described above, the creation policy can be unified by creating the class diagram based on the specification / design document representing the operation of the software. Furthermore, by referring to the conceptual system, it is possible to make up for the lack of knowledge and to prevent errors in the class diagram.

Explanatory drawing showing an example of class diagram An explanatory diagram showing an example of a sequence diagram Explanatory drawing showing how a class is generated from a sequence diagram Explanatory drawing showing how class attributes are generated from a sequence diagram Explanatory diagram showing how class relationships are generated from sequence diagrams Explanatory diagram showing an example of the conceptual system Explanatory diagram showing how knowledge is acquired from classes and conceptual systems The block diagram which shows the class diagram creation assistance apparatus concerning an example of embodiment of this invention The flowchart which shows the operation | movement order of this invention apparatus. Explanatory drawing which shows the conceptual system concerning Example 1. Explanatory drawing which shows the class diagram concerning Example 1. Explanatory drawing which shows an example of operation | movement of the attribute production | generation part concerning Example 1. FIG. Explanatory drawing which shows the class figure after the attribute generation concerning the example 1 Explanatory drawing which shows the class diagram after the relation production | generation concerning Example 1. FIG. Explanatory drawing which shows the conceptual system and class diagram after the correlation concerning Example 1 Explanatory drawing which shows the class figure after the attribute addition concerning Example 1

Explanation of symbols

  1: input unit, 2: display unit, 3: concept system creation unit, 4: concept system storage unit, 5: specification / design document reception unit, 6: class generation unit, 7: attribute generation unit, 8: association generation Part, 9: concept system operation part, 10: knowledge acquisition part, 11: attribute addition part.

Claims (7)

A class diagram creation support device that supports creation of a class diagram representing management information of the development target software among specifications / designs related to the development target software,
A specification / design document accepting unit that accepts a created specification / design document related to the software to be developed, and retrieves a specification / design document representing the operation of the software to be developed,
A class diagram in which the extracted specification / design is classified for each type of function of the software to be developed, and management information representing a target operated by the function in the classified specification / design is used as a class diagram A class generation unit for generating
An attribute generation unit that acquires management information used in the operation of software from the classified specifications / designs, and adds the management information to the class diagram as an attribute of the corresponding class;
A class diagram creation support apparatus comprising: a relationship generation unit that extracts a set of classes having the same attribute from the class diagram to which the attribute is added and generates a relationship between the classes. In addition to the above
In accordance with information and operations input from the input unit, a concept system creation unit that creates a concept system that expresses the relationship between concepts used in work related to the development target software,
A concept system storage unit for storing the concept system created by the concept system creation unit;
Reads the conceptual system related to the development target software from the conceptual system storage unit, displays it on the display unit together with the class diagram, and follows the operations input from the input unit, the attributes included in the class in the class diagram and the concepts in the conceptual system A conceptual system operation unit for associating attributes included in
A knowledge acquisition unit that acquires an attribute not included in the associated class from a concept in which the attribute is associated with the class based on the association information, the class diagram, and the concept system, and displays the attribute on the display unit. The class diagram creation support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: In addition to the above
The class diagram creation support apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising an attribute addition unit that adds an attribute to a class in the class diagram in accordance with an operation input from the input unit.   The program for functioning a computer as each means which comprises the apparatus in any one of Claims 1 thru | or 3. A class diagram creation support method for supporting creation of a class diagram representing management information of a development target software among specifications / designs related to the development target software using a computer,
In the computer,
A specification / design document reception step for accepting a created specification / design document related to the development target software, and extracting a specification / design document representing the operation of the development target software from the specification / design document;
A class diagram in which the extracted specification / design is classified for each type of function of the software to be developed, and management information representing a target operated by the function in the classified specification / design is used as a class diagram A class generation step for generating
An attribute generation step of acquiring management information used in software operation from the classified specifications / design documents and adding the management information as an attribute of a corresponding class in a class diagram;
A class diagram creation support method, comprising: extracting a set of classes having the same attribute from the class diagram to which the attribute is added and generating a relationship between the classes. In addition to the above
In accordance with information and operations input from the input unit, a concept system creation step for creating a concept system that expresses the relationship between concepts used for work related to the software to be developed,
A concept system storage step for storing the concept system created in the concept system creation step in the storage unit;
Following the association generation step,
Reads the conceptual system related to the development target software from the storage unit, displays it on the display unit together with the class diagram, and includes the attributes included in the class in the class diagram and the concept in the conceptual system according to the operation input from the input unit A conceptual system operation step for associating the attribute
Based on the association information, the class diagram, and the concept system, acquiring an attribute that is not included in the associated class from a concept in which the attributes are associated with the class, and executing a knowledge acquisition step of displaying on the display unit 6. The class diagram creation support method according to claim 5. Following the knowledge acquisition step,
The class diagram creation support method according to claim 6, wherein an attribute addition step of adding an attribute to a class in the class diagram is executed according to an operation input from the input unit.

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