WCRE - Oct Temporal Model Explorer - Farah and Lethbridge Temporal Exploration of Software Models Hanna Farah IBM Ottawa Timothy Lethbridge University of Ottawa

WCRE - Oct Temporal Model Explorer - Farah and Lethbridge Temporal Model Exploring (TME) Key Ideas Smoothly slide a document back and forth as it appeared in time Mark spots of interest (snapshots) to jump back and forth to Filter the edit events –E.g. filter out position changes in a diagram so items stay in their final position Annotate history easily

WCRE - Oct Temporal Model Explorer - Farah and Lethbridge

WCRE - Oct Temporal Model Explorer - Farah and Lethbridge Hypotheses Participants using TME –Can solve modeling problems more quickly more accurately –Prefer it to not using TME Participants using final positioning filtering in TME –Can solve modeling problems more quickly more accurately –Prefer it to not using final positioning

WCRE - Oct Temporal Model Explorer - Farah and Lethbridge Study Participants –Twelve IBM employees Managers Software developers Coop students Experiment steps –Participants were first given a consent form –Given a short training session in the TME feature –Given three class diagrams and asked questions (more details of experiment blocking) (more details of questions asked)

WCRE - Oct Temporal Model Explorer - Farah and Lethbridge Measured performance results No statistically significant difference in speed or accuracy –When using TME or not –When using original position –(more details of the measured results)(more details of the measured results)

WCRE - Oct Temporal Model Explorer - Farah and Lethbridge Questionnaire results 1 I found that the TME feature helped me understand class diagrams more quickly –4.2 / 5 Using the page-up and page-down keys, I found that a useful set of steps in the development of the model (snapshots) were presented –4.1 / 5 I would use the TME feature if it was available to me in my work environment and I was asked to understand a class diagram. –3.9 / 5

WCRE - Oct Temporal Model Explorer - Farah and Lethbridge Questionnaire results 2 TME feature resulted in me taking a longer time to answer the questions –2.4 / 5 TME feature was awkward to use –1.7 / 5

WCRE - Oct Temporal Model Explorer - Farah and Lethbridge Future work 1 Similar study with larger models that have multiple diagrams Giving the TME tool to a group of users –use it in their daily work –surveying them to get more feedback Additional filters –i.e. filter on name changes

WCRE - Oct Temporal Model Explorer - Farah and Lethbridge Future work 2 Automatically detecting snapshots based on: –Context –Time Deploying the TME feature in word processors and other tools

WCRE - Oct Temporal Model Explorer - Farah and Lethbridge Summary TME: Temporal exploration using a slider –Final positioning filtering –Adding, removing, or editing at ANY time of snapshots (controlled granularity) temporal annotations –Simple, would not add to ‘feature overload’ Study –Users gave positive feedback A patent has been filed on key aspects of this work

WCRE - Oct Temporal Model Explorer - Farah and Lethbridge Questions?

WCRE - Oct Temporal Model Explorer - Farah and Lethbridge Supplemental slides

WCRE - Oct Temporal Model Explorer - Farah and Lethbridge Experiment blocking (back) (back) Blocking by –Problem –Problem sequence –Person creating original model –Model –Participant ability –Treatment pattern Order of o No TME o TME with final position o TME with original position

WCRE - Oct Temporal Model Explorer - Farah and Lethbridge Experiment blocking grids (back) (back)

WCRE - Oct Temporal Model Explorer - Farah and Lethbridge Sample question asked (back) (back) Imagine the airline regularly flies from Ottawa to Toronto, but wants to create an extra charter flight tomorrow from Ottawa to Toronto. To enable this, the system will have to create instances of one or more classes. Which classes will the system have to make instances of? No need to worry about booking any passengers or assigning crew.

WCRE - Oct Temporal Model Explorer - Farah and Lethbridge More details of the measured data (back) (back)