An Approach for the Semi-automated Derivation of UML Interaction Models from Scenario-based Runtime Tests

Abstract: Documenting system behavior explicitely using graphical models (e.g. UML activity or sequence diagrams) facilitates communication about and understanding of software systems during development or maintenance. Creating graphical models manually is a time-consuming and often error-prone task. Deriving models from system-execution traces, however, suffers from the problem of model-size explosion. We propose a model-driven approach for deriving behavior documentation in terms of UML interaction models from runtime tests in a semi-automated manner. Key to our approach is leveraging the structure of scenario-based tests for model and diagram derivation. Each derived model represents a particular view on the test-execution trace. This way, one can benefit from derived graphical models while making the resulting model size manageable. In this paper, we define conceptual mappings between a test-execution trace metamodel and the UML2 metamodel. In addition, we provide means to turn selected details of test specifications and testing environment into views on the test-execution trace (scenario-test viewpoint). The feasibility of our approach is demonstrated by a prototype implementation (KaleidoScope), which builds on an existing software-testing framework (STORM) and model transformations (Eclipse M2M/QVTo).