Restricted use case modeling (RUCM), developed by Yue et al., provides well-defined rules and a related use case template to facilitate use case modeling and the derivation of unified modeling language (UML) analysis models (in the form of diagrams such as class, sequence, and so on). This paper reports on an extended controlled experiment to evaluate the applicability of specific restriction rules on use case modeling and the impact of those rules on the quality of the analysis models. A claim is also made that the measures, “defined to characterize restriction rules and the quality of [derived] class and sequence diagrams[,] can be reused to perform similar experiments in the future, either with RUCM or other approaches.” Furthermore, the design and analysis of the experiment itself are reported in detail, thus facilitating future replications and comparisons with similar experiments.

The paper begins with an explanation of the use case template and the related 26 restriction rules, followed by a description of the planning of the experiment. The authors present the results of the experiment and their analysis, identify threats to validity, and discuss practical limitations. The paper concludes with a review of related work.

The paper will be of interest to software engineering students and researchers interested in experimental approaches to the evaluation of modeling technology, and practicing software engineers looking for more systematic ways to conduct use case modeling and derive related analysis models.