UML crisis! An educational perspective

Zheng Li; Aidan McGowan; Yan Liu; Abdelwahab Hamou-Lhadj

doi:10.1145/3696630.372724

UML crisis! An educational perspective

Zheng Li
, Aidan McGowan
, Yan Liu
, Abdelwahab Hamou-Lhadj

School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

2 Citations (Scopus)

78 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Context: Unified Modelling Language (UML) is not only a standard modelling language in the software industry but also the “lingua franca” of software engineering education. However, teaching and learning UML have been both identified as difficult tasks. Aim: This study aims to have a practical and deep understanding of what causes the difficulties in UML education (in addition to the known complexity of UML), and cor- respondingly to propose actionable mitigation strategies. Method: we conducted critical reflection on our educational activities, teaching materials, and students’ learning effects in a software engineering conversion programme, followed by consulting ex- ternal UML experts. Results: We observed and demonstrated a vicious cycle of the UML crisis in education, which in turn drove us to preliminarily propose a set of potential tactics for breaking the vicious cycle and addressing the UML crisis. Conclusions: Practitioners’ lack of good UML knowledge and skills could have been out of educators’ control. Breaking the vicious cycle of the UML crisis in education requires collaborative efforts across the whole community.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 33rd ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE Companion ’25)
Editors	Jingyue Li
Place of Publication	Trondheim, Norway
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Pages	895 - 900
Number of pages	6
ISBN (Electronic)	9798400712760
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3696630.372724
Publication status	Published - 28 Jul 2025
Event	The 33rd ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering - Trondheim, Norway Duration: 23 Jun 2025 → 27 Jun 2025 https://conf.researchr.org/home/fse-2025

Publication series

Name	Proceedings of the ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering
ISSN (Print)	1539-7521

Conference

Conference	The 33rd ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering
Abbreviated title	FSE 2025
Country/Territory	Norway
City	Trondheim
Period	23/06/2025 → 27/06/2025
Internet address	https://conf.researchr.org/home/fse-2025

Keywords

Software Modelling
UML Crisis in Education
Unified Modelling Language (UML)
Vicious Cycle

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Software

Access to Document

10.1145/3696630.372724Licence: CC BY

UML crisis! An educational perspective
Copyright 2025 the authors. This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the author and source are cited.
Final published version, 777 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

Li, Z., McGowan, A., Liu, Y., & Hamou-Lhadj, A. (2025). UML crisis! An educational perspective. In J. Li (Ed.), Proceedings of the 33rd ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE Companion ’25) (pp. 895 - 900). (Proceedings of the ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3696630.372724

Li, Zheng ; McGowan, Aidan ; Liu, Yan et al. / UML crisis! An educational perspective. Proceedings of the 33rd ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE Companion ’25). editor / Jingyue Li. Trondheim, Norway : Association for Computing Machinery, 2025. pp. 895 - 900 (Proceedings of the ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering).

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Li, Z , McGowan, A, Liu, Y & Hamou-Lhadj, A 2025, UML crisis! An educational perspective. in J Li (ed.), Proceedings of the 33rd ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE Companion ’25). Proceedings of the ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, Association for Computing Machinery, Trondheim, Norway, pp. 895 - 900, The 33rd ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering , Trondheim, Norway, 23/06/2025. https://doi.org/10.1145/3696630.372724

UML crisis! An educational perspective. / Li, Zheng ; McGowan, Aidan; Liu, Yan et al.
Proceedings of the 33rd ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE Companion ’25). ed. / Jingyue Li. Trondheim, Norway: Association for Computing Machinery, 2025. p. 895 - 900 (Proceedings of the ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

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N2 - Context: Unified Modelling Language (UML) is not only a standard modelling language in the software industry but also the “lingua franca” of software engineering education. However, teaching and learning UML have been both identified as difficult tasks. Aim: This study aims to have a practical and deep understanding of what causes the difficulties in UML education (in addition to the known complexity of UML), and cor- respondingly to propose actionable mitigation strategies. Method: we conducted critical reflection on our educational activities, teaching materials, and students’ learning effects in a software engineering conversion programme, followed by consulting ex- ternal UML experts. Results: We observed and demonstrated a vicious cycle of the UML crisis in education, which in turn drove us to preliminarily propose a set of potential tactics for breaking the vicious cycle and addressing the UML crisis. Conclusions: Practitioners’ lack of good UML knowledge and skills could have been out of educators’ control. Breaking the vicious cycle of the UML crisis in education requires collaborative efforts across the whole community.

AB - Context: Unified Modelling Language (UML) is not only a standard modelling language in the software industry but also the “lingua franca” of software engineering education. However, teaching and learning UML have been both identified as difficult tasks. Aim: This study aims to have a practical and deep understanding of what causes the difficulties in UML education (in addition to the known complexity of UML), and cor- respondingly to propose actionable mitigation strategies. Method: we conducted critical reflection on our educational activities, teaching materials, and students’ learning effects in a software engineering conversion programme, followed by consulting ex- ternal UML experts. Results: We observed and demonstrated a vicious cycle of the UML crisis in education, which in turn drove us to preliminarily propose a set of potential tactics for breaking the vicious cycle and addressing the UML crisis. Conclusions: Practitioners’ lack of good UML knowledge and skills could have been out of educators’ control. Breaking the vicious cycle of the UML crisis in education requires collaborative efforts across the whole community.

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Li Z , McGowan A, Liu Y, Hamou-Lhadj A. UML crisis! An educational perspective. In Li J, editor, Proceedings of the 33rd ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE Companion ’25). Trondheim, Norway: Association for Computing Machinery. 2025. p. 895 - 900. (Proceedings of the ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering). doi: 10.1145/3696630.372724

UML crisis! An educational perspective

Abstract

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Conference

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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