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Domain modelling abstracts real-world entities and their relationships in the form of class diagrams for a given domain problem space. Modellers often perform domain modelling to reduce the gap between understanding the problem description which expresses requirements in natural language and the concise interpretation of these requirements. However, the manual practice of domain modelling is both time-consuming and error-prone. These issues are further aggravated when problem descriptions are long, which makes it hard to trace modelling decisions from domain models to problem descriptions or vice-versa leading to completeness and conciseness issues. Automated support for tracing domain modelling decisions in both directions is thus advantageous. In this paper, we propose an automated approach that uses artificial intelligence techniques to extract domain models along with their trace links. We present a traceability information model to enable traceability of modelling decisions in both directions and provide its proof-of-concept in the form of a tool. The evaluation on a set of unseen problem descriptions shows that our approach is promising with an overall median F2 score of 82.04%. We conduct an exploratory user study to assess the benefits and limitations of our approach and present the lessons learned from this study.

Domain modelling transforms domain problem descriptions written in natural language (NL) into analyzable and concise domain models (class diagrams) during requirements analysis or the early stages of design in software development. Since the practice of domain modelling requires time in addition to modelling skills and experience, several approaches have been proposed to automate or semi-automate the construction of domain models from problem descriptions expressed in NL. Despite the existing work on domain model extraction, some significant challenges remain unaddressed: (i) the extracted domain models are not accurate enough to be used directly or with minor modifications in software development, (ii) existing approaches do not facilitate the tracing of the rationale behind the modelling decisions taken by the model extractor, and (iii) existing approaches do not provide interactive interfaces to update the extracted domain models. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce a domain modelling bot called DoMoBOT, explain its architecture, and implement it in the form of a web-based prototype tool. The bot automatically extracts a domain model from a problem description written in NL with an accuracy higher than existing approaches. Furthermore, the bot enables modellers to update a part of the extracted domain model and in response the bot re-configures the other parts of the domain model pro-actively. To improve the accuracy of extracted domain models, we combine the techniques of Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning. Finally, we evaluate the accuracy of the extracted domain models.

Model-Driven Software Engineering advocates the use of models and their transformations across different stages of software engineering to better understand and analyze systems under development. Domain modelling is used during requirements analysis or the early stages of design to transform informal requirements written in natural language to domain models which are analyzable and more concise. Since domain modelling is time-consuming and requires modelling skills and experience, many approaches have been proposed to extract domain concepts and relationships automatically using extraction rules. However, relationships and patterns are often hidden in the sentences of a problem description. Automatic recognition of relationships or patterns in those cases requires context information and external knowledge of participating domain concepts, which goes beyond what is possible with extraction rules. In this paper, we draw on recent work on domain model extraction and envision a novel technique where sentence boundaries are customized and clusters of sentences are created for domain concepts. The technique further exploits a BiLSTM neural network model to identify relationships and patterns among domain concepts. We also present a classification strategy for relationships and patterns and use it to instantiate our technique. Preliminary results indicate that this novel idea is promising and warrants further research.

In Model-Driven Engineering (MDE), models are used to build and analyze complex systems. In the last decades, different modelling formalisms have been proposed for supporting software development. However, their adoption and practice strongly rely on mastering essential modelling skills to develop a complete and coherent model-based system. Moreover, it is often difficult for novice modellers to get direct and timely feedback and recommendations on their modelling strategies and decisions, particularly in large classroom settings which hinders their learning. Certainly, there is an opportunity to apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to an MDE learning environment to empower the provisioning of automated and intelligent modelling advocacy. In this paper, we propose a framework called ModBud (a modelling buddy) to educate novice modellers about the art of abstraction. ModBud uses natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) to create modelling bots with the aim of improving the modelling skills of novice modellers and assisting other practitioners, too. These bots could be used to support teaching with automatic creation or grading of models and enhance learning beyond the traditional classroom-based MDE education with timely feedback and personalized tutoring. Research challenges for the proposed framework are discussed and a research roadmap is presented.