Performance Modeling of UML-Based Software Specifications: A Comparative Study

Assessing software quality attributes is one of the most sought-after topics in recent software engineering research literature. Performance characteristics of the software systems, responsiveness and scalability in particular, are of the most important attributes determining the software quality. The ability to assess the software performance as early as possible in the software life cycle is highly desirable. It would be less costly to detect and rectify performance problems in the software architectural design. In the recent years, the Unified Modeling Language (UML) is becoming the de-facto standard for software development. This success is due to its capability to provide different views of the software, resulting in a clearer understanding. Performance analysis of software specifications modeled in UML is drawing much attention in both industry and research communities. A wide-array of approaches has been introduced over the last few years to address this problem. In this paper we present the major trends in performance modeling of UML-based software specifications over the last two years in particular. Throughout this paper, we compare these approaches in terms of their applicability, limitations, generality and deficiencies. Our objective is to highlight future research areas and to compile a set of recommended strategies to better enhance current methodologies.