Evaluating and improving the Umple model-oriented programming language

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Over the past three years, we have developed a technology called Umple. This technology unifies programming and modeling. It also allows incremental addition of new abstractions to programs, a process we call 'umplification.' Our initial observation is that Umple can speed up development and improve software quality. In addition, we have evidence that Umple helps students learn about software engineering because they can instantly generate systems from Umple to see the impact of their modeling decisions. Currently, Umple supports most class and state diagram notations. It integrates with Java, Ruby and PHP. It is available as an Eclipse plugin and also online as UmpleOnline. Objective: We wish to improve Umple and contribute to knowledge about this kind of technology in the context of both software development and software engineering education. Approach: We will first assess the effectiveness of Umple when users are performing the following tasks: a) creating medium-sized new systems; b) understanding an existing program; c) converting a program into a simpler program that incorporates Umple; d) learning about software engineering; and e) performing conceptual modeling. We will conduct a grounded theory study, usability studies, case studies in industrial contexts, formal experiments, and comparisons with competing technologies such as the ALF action language being developed for UML. Example experiments may include comparison of comprehensibility of a system written using a) Umple, b) a standard programming language, or c) a UML model-driven development tool. In an iterative manner, we will apply the lessons learned to make improvements to Umple.