Generating multiple conceptual models from behavior-driven development scenarios

Abstract

Researchers have proposed that generating conceptual models automatically from user stories might be useful for agile software development. It is, however, unclear from the state-of-the-art what a consistent and complementary set of models to generate is, how these models can be generated such that relationships and dependencies in a set of related user stories are unveiled, and why these models are useful in agile software development projects. In this paper, we address these questions through a Design Science research study. First, we define four stylized versions of Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagrams (i.e., use case diagram, class diagram, activity diagram, state machine diagram) that will be the target of the model generation. Although these stylized UML diagrams have a reduced abstract syntax, they offer different perspectives on the software system in focus with potential usefulness for requirements and software engineering. Second, we develop an automated model generation approach based on different design artifacts including a Natural Language Processing (NLP) tool that implements our approach. Key to our solution is the use of the Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) scenario template to document user stories. Using an example set of BDD scenarios as source of the model generation, we demonstrate the feasibility of our approach via the NLP tool that implements our approach. Third, we conduct an empirical study with experts in agile software development involving the researcher-guided interactive use of our tool to explore the use of the generated models. This study shows the perceived usefulness of the models that our tool can generate and identifies different uses and benefits of the models for requirements analysis, system design, software implementation, and testing in projects that employ agile methods.