Towards Practical Tools for Mining Abstractions in UML Models

Abstract: We present an experiment in applying an extension of Formal Concept Analysis to UML class model restructuring. The Relational Concept Analysis (RCA) mines potentially useful abstractions from UML classes, attributes, operations and associations and therefore outscores competing restructuring techniques which usually focus exclusively on classes. Nevertheless, the complexity and the size of the RCA output require interactive tools to assist the human designers in comprehending the corresponding class model. We discuss the benefits of using RCA-based techniques in the light of an initial set of tools that were devised to ease the navigation and the visual analysis of the results of the restructuring process.

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