Perceptions of Software Modeling: A Survey of Software Practitioners

Abstract. In this paper we analyze the results of a survey on how, when and why some software developers model, and why many prefer not to model. The survey of 113 software practitioners studied the reasons developers chose code-centric versus model-centric software engineering, and also gathered data about the notations and tools used. Key findings include: UML is confirmed as the dominant modeling notation; modeling tools are primarily used for documentation and up-front design with little code generation; modeling tools are also used to transcribe models from other media including whiteboards; and the type and quality of generated code is one of the biggest reported problems