Retrieving sequence diagrams using genetic algorithm

The benefits of software reuse are multiplied if it is carried out in the early stages of software development. Sequence diagrams are commonly used to model the functionality of software systems at the initial stages (e.g. during requirements analysis) of the software development life cycle. In this work we utilize Genetic Algorithm (GA) for determining the similarity of graphical representations of sequence diagrams, in order to aid the retrieval of similar sequence diagrams from a repository. Experimental results show that the introduction of GA in the graph similarity computation leads to very significant improvements in retrieval quality compared to the existing method which utilizes a deterministic graph similarity algorithm.