Experiences from introducing UML-based development in a large safety-critical project

UML and UML-based development methods have become de facto standards in industry, and there are many claims for the positive effects of modelling object-oriented systems using methods based on UML. However, there is no reported empirical evaluation of UML-based development in large, industrial projects. This paper reports a case study in ABB, a global company with 120,000 employees, conducted to identify immediate benefits as well as difficulties and their causes when introducing UML-based development in large projects. ABB decided to use UML-based development in the company's system development projects as part of an effort to enable certification according to the IEC 61508 safety standard. A UML-based development method was first applied in a large, international project with 230 system developers, testers and managers. The goal of the project was to build a new version of a safety-critical process control system. Most of the software was embedded. The project members were mostl...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2006
• Where: ESE
• Authors: Bente Anda, Kai Hansen, Ingolf Gullesen, Hanne Kristin Thorsen
• Keywords: Database, ESE 2006, Project, UML-based Development, Uml-based Development Method