Tool-Supported UML Analysis for Early Detection of Software Design Flaws
Keywords:
UML, XMI Parsing, Software Architecture, Automated Analysis, Design Flaws, Software Metrics, Enterprise Architect, Java tool.Abstract
This research presents a UML-based approach for automated software architecture analysis aimed at improving design quality and maintainability in software systems. The proposed methodology integrates UML modeling, XMI-based data extraction, and Java-based metric computation to identify architectural weaknesses at an early stage. A case study on a Student Record System was conducted, where key UML diagrams—Component, Deployment, Class, and Use Case—were modeled using Enterprise Architect. A custom Java tool was developed to parse XMI files, extract structural information, and compute object-oriented metrics such as Lines of Code (LOC), Weighted Methods per Class (WMC), Depth of Inheritance Tree (DIT), Number of Children (NOC), Lack of Cohesion in Methods (LCOM), and Response for a Class (RFC). The metric analysis revealed concise, low-complexity, and well-organized classes, demonstrating the effectiveness of the approach in supporting maintainable and scalable software architecture. The tool’s graphical interface allows users to visualize UML models, load XMI files, and perform automated architectural evaluation, making it accessible for both academic and professional applications. Overall, this study illustrates that automated UML-based metric evaluation provides a practical and efficient means to assess and enhance software design quality.
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