Overview of Reflexion Model Technique.. 3

Simply viewing a displayed reflexion model does not generally provide sufficiently detailed information for a user to assess, plan, and perform a software engineering task. Typically, he/she must also investigate the source model interactions mapped to particular arcs in the reflexion model. Sometimes, the information in the reflexion model may reveal missing interactions in the high-level model or deficiencies in the map. For example, a map entry may associate source model entities with the wrong high-level model entity or the map may not be specific enough in capturing the user’s intent. This often leads to refinement of the source model, the high-level model, or the map.

The kind of coupling between the CodeGen and SymTab modules, for example, might affect how the code generator is modified to produce code for a different platform (in the compiler example). The Source Model Values window will show the result of a user query about this interaction. Using this information, the user can visit these code locations to help determine the complexity of the task to be performed.

Three files support the display and investigation of a reflexion model.

1.The image arc file describes the arcs between entities of the high-level model that result from applying the map to the source model.

2.The mapped arc file describes how interactions in the source model map to arcs described in the image arc file. The information appears when the user clicks on a convergence or divergence.

3.The unmapped arc file describes the interactions in the source model that are not mapped as part of the computation. A user may access this information to help assess the completeness of the defined map.

Generally, the user iteratively computes and investigates successive reflexion models until he/she acquires enough structural information for the task being performed.

Reference

Reengineering with Reflexion Models: A Case Study by Gail C. Murphy and David Notkin.

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