Introduction Software development involves creating various artifacts at different levels of abstraction and establishing relationships between them is essential. Traceability link recovery (TLR) automates this process, enhancing software quality by aiding tasks like maintenance and evolution. However, automating TLR is challenging due to semantic gaps resulting from different levels of abstraction. While automated TLR approaches exist for requirements and code, architecture documentation lacks tailored solutions, hindering the preservation of architecture knowledge and design decisions. Methods This paper presents our approach TransArC for TLR between architecture documentation and code, using component-based architecture models as intermediate artifacts to bridge the semantic gap. We create transitive trace links by combining the existing approach ArDoCo for linking architecture documentation to models with our novel approach ArCoTL for linking architecture models to code.Results We evaluate our approaches with five open-source projects, comparing our results to baseline approaches. The model-to-code TLR approach achieves an average F1-score of 0.98, while the documentation-to-code TLR approach achieves a promising average F1-score of 0.82, significantly outperforming baselines. Conclusion Combining two specialized approaches with an intermediate artifact shows promise for bridging the semantic gap. In future research, we will explore further possibilities for such transitive approaches.
@inproceedings{keim_recovering_2024,author={Keim, Jan and Corallo, Sophie and Fuch\ss{}, Dominik and Hey, Tobias and Telge, Tobias and Koziolek, Anne},title={Recovering Trace Links Between Software Documentation And Code},year={2024},isbn={9798400702174},publisher={Association for Computing Machinery},address={New York, NY, USA},url={https://doi.org/10.1145/3597503.3639130},doi={10.1145/3597503.3639130},booktitle={Proceedings of the IEEE/ACM 46th International Conference on Software Engineering},articleno={215},numpages={13},location={Lisbon, Portugal},series={ICSE '24},}
Modeling Languages for Automotive Digital Twins – A Survey Among the German Automotive Industry
Jérôme Pfeiffer, Dominik Fuchß, Thomas Kühn, Robin Liebhart, and 5 more authors
In MODELS ’24, September 22–27, 2024, Linz, Austria, 2024
@inproceedings{pfeiffer_modeling_2024,author={Pfeiffer, Jérôme and Fuchß, Dominik and Kühn, Thomas and Liebhart, Robin and Neumann, Dirk and Neimöck, Christer and Seiler, Christian and Koziolek, Anne and Wortmann, Andreas},title={Modeling Languages for Automotive Digital Twins -- A Survey Among the German Automotive Industry},year={2024},doi={10.1145/3640310.3674100},booktitle={MODELS '24, September 22–27, 2024, Linz, Austria},}
Detecting Inconsistencies in Software Architecture Documentation Using Traceability Link Recovery
@incollection{keim_detecting_2024,author={Keim, Jan and Corallo, Sophie and Fuchß, Dominik and Koziolek, Anne},title={Detecting Inconsistencies in Software Architecture Documentation Using Traceability Link Recovery},year={2024},doi={10.18420/sw2024_37},booktitle={Software Engineering 2024 (SE 2024)},publisher={Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.},address={Bonn},pissn={1617-5468},isbn={978-3-88579-737-1},pages={119--120},}
2023
Evaluation Methods and Replicability of Software Architecture Research Objects
Marco Konersmann, Angelika Kaplan, Thomas Kühn, Robert Heinrich, and 14 more authors
@incollection{konersmann_evaluation_2023,author={Konersmann, Marco and Kaplan, Angelika and Kühn, Thomas and Heinrich, Robert and Koziolek, Anne and Reussner, Ralf and Jürjens, Jan and al-Doori, Mahmood and Boltz, Nicolas and Ehl, Marco and Fuchß, Dominik and Großer, Katharina and Hahner, Sebastian and Keim, Jan and Lohr, Matthias and Sağlam, Timur and Schulz, Sophie and Töberg, Jan-Philipp},title={Evaluation Methods and Replicability of Software Architecture Research Objects},booktitle={Software Engineering 2023},year={2023},editor={Engels, Gregor and Hebig, Regina and Tichy, Matthias},pages={ 75-76 },publisher={Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.},address={Bonn},}
Establishing a Benchmark Dataset for Traceability Link Recovery Between Software Architecture Documentation and Models
@inproceedings{fuchss_establishing_2023,author={Fuch{\ss}, Dominik and Corallo, Sophie and Keim, Jan and Speit, Janek and Koziolek, Anne},editor={Batista, Thais and Bure{\v{s}}, Tom{\'a}{\v{s}} and Raibulet, Claudia and Muccini, Henry},title={Establishing a Benchmark Dataset for Traceability Link Recovery Between Software Architecture Documentation and Models},booktitle={Software Architecture. ECSA 2022 Tracks and Workshops},year={2023},publisher={Springer International Publishing},address={Cham},pages={455--464},doi={10.1007/978-3-031-36889-9_30},}
Detecting Inconsistencies in Software Architecture Documentation Using Traceability Link Recovery
@inproceedings{keim_detecting_2023,author={Keim, Jan and Corallo, Sophie and Fuchß, Dominik and Koziolek, Anne},booktitle={2023 IEEE 20th International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA)},title={Detecting Inconsistencies in Software Architecture Documentation Using Traceability Link Recovery},year={2023},volume={},number={},pages={141-152},doi={10.1109/ICSA56044.2023.00021},}
An Expert Survey on the Use of Informal Models in the Automotive Industry
Dominik Fuchß, Thomas Kühn, Andreas Wortmann, Jérôme Pfeiffer, and 1 more author
@techreport{fuchss_expert_2023,author={Fuchß, Dominik and Kühn, Thomas and Wortmann, Andreas and Pfeiffer, Jérôme and Koziolek, Anne},year={2023},title={An Expert Survey on the Use of Informal Models in the Automotive Industry},doi={10.5445/IR/1000162389},institution={{Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)}},keywords={Informal Model, Survey, Automotive, Cyber-Physical System, Digital Twin},pagetotal={14},language={english},}
A Formalized Classification Schema for Model Consistency
Thomas Kühn, Dominik Fuchß, Sophie Corallo, Lars König, and 7 more authors
@techreport{kuehn_formalized_2023,author={Kühn, Thomas and Fuchß, Dominik and Corallo, Sophie and König, Lars and Burger, Erik and Keim, Jan and Mazkatli, Manar and Sağlam, Timur and Reiche, Frederik and Koziolek, Anne and Reussner, Ralf},year={2023},title={A Formalized Classification Schema for Model Consistency},doi={10.5445/IR/1000161127},institution={{Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)}},issn={2190-4782},series={Karlsruhe Reports in Informatics},pagetotal={37},language={english},volume={2023},number={1},}
2022
Introducing an Evaluation Method for Taxonomies
Angelika Kaplan, Thomas Kühn, Sebastian Hahner, Niko Benkler, and 4 more authors
In The International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering 2022, Gothenburg, Sweden, 2022
@inproceedings{kaplan_introducing_2022,author={Kaplan, Angelika and K\"{u}hn, Thomas and Hahner, Sebastian and Benkler, Niko and Keim, Jan and Fuch\ss{}, Dominik and Corallo, Sophie and Heinrich, Robert},title={Introducing an Evaluation Method for Taxonomies},year={2022},isbn={9781450396134},publisher={Association for Computing Machinery},address={New York, NY, USA},url={https://doi.org/10.1145/3530019.3535305},doi={10.1145/3530019.3535305},booktitle={The International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering 2022},pages={311–316},numpages={6},keywords={meta-research in software engineering, taxonomies, evaluation},location={Gothenburg, Sweden},series={EASE 2022},}
Evaluation Methods and Replicability of Software Architecture Research Objects
Marco Konersmann, Angelika Kaplan, Thomas Kühn, Robert Heinrich, and 14 more authors
In 2022 IEEE 19th International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA), 2022
@inproceedings{konersmann_evaluation_2022,author={Konersmann, Marco and Kaplan, Angelika and Kühn, Thomas and Heinrich, Robert and Koziolek, Anne and Reussner, Ralf and Jürjens, Jan and al-Doori, Mahmood and Boltz, Nicolas and Ehl, Marco and Fuchs, Dominik and Groser, Katharina and Hahner, Sebastian and Keim, Jan and Lohr, Matthias and Sağlam, Timur and Schulz, Sophie and Töberg, Jan-Philipp},booktitle={2022 IEEE 19th International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA)},title={Evaluation Methods and Replicability of Software Architecture Research Objects},year={2022},volume={},number={},pages={157-168},doi={10.1109/ICSA53651.2022.00023},}
2021
Tracelink Recovery for Software Architecture Documentation
@inproceedings{keim_tracelink_2021,author={Keim, Jan and Schulz, Sophie and Fuch{\ss}, Dominik and Kocher, Claudius and Speit, Janek and Koziolek, Anne},title={Tracelink Recovery for Software Architecture Documentation},booktitle={Software Architecture},editor={Biffl, Stefan and Navarro, Elena and L{\"o}we, Welf and Sirjani, Marjan and Mirandola, Raffaela and Weyns, Danny},year={2021},publisher={Springer International Publishing},address={Cham},pages={101--116},doi={10.1007/978-3-030-86044-8_7},isbn={978-3-030-86044-8},}
Sketches and Natural Language in Agile Modeling
Dominik Fuchß
In ECSA-C 2021 : Companion Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Software Architecture, Virtual (originally: Växjö, Sweden), 13-17 September, 2021. ECSA 2021 Companion Volume. Ed.: R. Heinrich, 2021
@inproceedings{fuchss_sketches_2021,author={Fuchß, Dominik},year={2021},title={Sketches and Natural Language in Agile Modeling},pages={Paper-ID: 94},eventtitle={15th European Conference on Software Architecture},eventtitleaddon={ECSA 2021},eventdate={2021-09-13/2021-09-17},venue={Online},booktitle={ECSA-C 2021 : Companion Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Software Architecture, Virtual (originally: Växjö, Sweden), 13-17 September, 2021. ECSA 2021 Companion Volume. Ed.: R. Heinrich},issn={1613-0073},series={CEUR Workshop Proceedings},language={english},volume={2978},doi={10.5445/IR/1000139435},}
2020
Assessing Hypotheses in Multi-Agent Systems for Natural Language Processing
@masterthesis{fuchss_assessing_2020,author={Fuch{\ss}, Dominik},school={Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)},title={{Assessing Hypotheses in Multi-Agent Systems for Natural Language Processing}},type={Master's Thesis},doi={10.5445/IR/1000126806},keywords={Natural Language Processing, Hypotheses, Multi-Agent Systems},year={2020},}
Context Classification in Dialog-Based Interaction
Alexander Wachtel, Felix Eurich, Dominik Fuchß, and Walter F. Tichy
In 2020 IEEE 14th International Conference on Semantic Computing (ICSC), 2020
@inproceedings{wachtel_context_2020,author={{Wachtel}, Alexander and {Eurich}, Felix and {Fuchß}, Dominik and {Tichy}, Walter F.},booktitle={2020 IEEE 14th International Conference on Semantic Computing (ICSC)},title={Context Classification in Dialog-Based Interaction},year={2020},doi={10.1109/ICSC.2020.00038},}
2019
Assessing the Quality Impact of Features in Component-based Software Architectures
Axel Busch, Dominik Fuchß, Maximilian Eckert, and Anne Koziolek
In Proceedings of the 13th European Conference on Software Architecture, Paris, France, 2019
@inproceedings{busch_assessing_2019,author={Busch, Axel and Fuch{\ss}, Dominik and Eckert, Maximilian and Koziolek, Anne},title={Assessing the Quality Impact of Features in Component-based Software Architectures},booktitle={Proceedings of the 13th European Conference on Software Architecture},year={2019},series={ECSA'19},address={Berlin, DE},publisher={Springer International Publishing},doi={10.1007/978-3-030-29983-5_14},keywords={Software, Architecture, Model, Design Decision, Features},location={Paris, France},}
PerOpteryx: Automated Improvement of Software Architectures
@inproceedings{busch_peropteryx_2019,address={Hamburg, Germany},author={Busch, Axel and Fuch{\ss}, Dominik and Koziolek, Anne},booktitle={Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA2019): Tool Demo Track},location={Hamburg, Germany},publisher={IEEE},series={ICSA'19},title={{PerOpteryx: Automated Improvement of Software Architectures}},year={2019},doi={10.1109/ICSA-C.2019.00036},}
Natural Language Data Queries on Multiple Heterogenous Data Sources
Alexander Wachtel, Dominik Fuchß, Matthias Przybylla, and Walter F. Tichy
@inproceedings{wachtel_natural_2019,author={Wachtel, Alexander and Fuch{\ss}, Dominik and Przybylla, Matthias and Tichy, Walter F.},editor={Malizia, Alessio and Valtolina, Stefano and Morch, Anders and Serrano, Alan and Stratton, Andrew},title={{Natural Language Data Queries on Multiple Heterogenous Data Sources}},booktitle={End-User Development},year={2019},publisher={Springer International Publishing},doi={10.1007/978-3-030-24781-2_13},}
Approaching Natural Conversation Chatbots by Interactive Dialogue Modelling & Microsoft LUIS
@inproceedings{wachtel_approaching_2019,author={Wachtel, Alexander and Fuchß, Dominik and Schulz, Sophie and Tichy, Walter F.},booktitle={2019 IEEE International Conference on Conversational Data & Knowledge Engineering (CDKE)},title={Approaching Natural Conversation Chatbots by Interactive Dialogue Modelling & Microsoft LUIS},year={2019},volume={},number={},pages={39-42},doi={10.1109/CDKE46621.2019.00013},}
2018
Verarbeitung natürlich-sprachlicher Beziehungsbeschreibungen zwischen Objekten
@thesis{fuchss18,author={Fuch{\ss}, Dominik},school={Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)},title={{Verarbeitung natürlich-sprachlicher Beziehungsbeschreibungen zwischen Objekten}},type={Bachelor's Thesis},year={2018},}