In order to evaluate the suitability of a tool based
on the model-driven paradigm and its acceptance in
the industrial environment, a proof of concept was
executed in two companies. This paper describes how
the proofs of concept were planned, carried out and
the results obtained. These results indicate that there
is indeed a need for tool support for reusing
information provided by mockups and that
transforming them into models of NDT suite is the
right kind of tool.
We concluded that the proof of concept was a
success, regarding the interest and acceptance in real
environments of the tool for transforming prototypes
into models. Our investment of time and resources in
building this very simple prototype and the draft
version of the plugin were affordable. In addition, the
companies guaranteed future support, meetings for
the control of the tool, and the test in the internal
development area of the companies once a stable
version is available.
However, this proof of concept is preliminary. An
important future work is to try to improve it.
Obviously, feedback of two companies may not be
enough. We plan further proof of concepts in other
companies to evaluate the suitability of our tool.
A next step then will be the construction of the
complete SocietySoft tool comprising the prototype
design and the plugin for importing the prototype and
transforming it into models. In this sense, the next
concrete steps would be the development and testing
of the transformations to obtain the elements of
analysis, such as system requirements. Therefore,
first, we will check and eventually change the
prototyping tool from PowerPoint to an online tool
with community support such as draw.io. This tool
has to fulfil our requirements of exporting in XML
format in a way that allows us to obtain appropriate
transformations for our NDT plugin. In addition, we
have to refactor the code of the plugin developed to
C# in order to obtain greater efficiency.
For our beta version of the tool, we plan an
experimentation and validation following the best
practices of Juristo & Moreno (2001). They propose
the following phases for the lifecycle of the
validation: goal definition, design of the experiment,
execution of the experiment, and analysis of the
results.
With all this, we will be able to get a complete
tool, which allows maintaining traceability between
the prototype and the model elements, with the cost
reduction and time savings that this implies.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper was supported by the project “SocietySoft-
Transfer of tools, policies, and principles for creating
quality software for the digital society” (AT17 5904
USE) of the Andalusian Regional Government`s
Department of Economy, Knowledge, Business, and
Universities (Spain) and NICO project (PID2019-
105455GB-C31) of the Ministry of Science,
Innovation and University of the Spanish
Government.
Furthermore, the authors would also like to thank
the anonymous reviewers for their valuable
comments and suggestions to improve the quality of
the paper.
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