Reusing UML specifications in a constrained application domain

Abstract

This article describes a method of reusing computer software designed in UML (Unified Modelling Language) with the aid of a domain model. The method's main strength is the possibility of software reuse at the earliest stages of the development life cycle, i.e. specification of use cases and their event flows. The article provides details of the representation techniques used for storing and retrieving reusable design components to and from a large collection of UML specifications. It describes approaches to reduce the complexity of dealing with very large domain models. And it describes the method of assessing the conceptual similarity between event flows and use cases.