Using UniMod for maintenance tasks: An experimental assessment in the context of model driven development

One of the claimed advantages of Model-driven development is the improvement in maintainability. However, few studies consider this aspect from an empirical point of view. This paper reports the results of a controlled experiment with 21 bachelor students aimed at investigating the effectiveness of Model-driven development during software maintenance and evolution activities. The tool used in the experiment is UniMod, a specific implementation of executable UML. Preliminary results indicate a relevant shortening of time with no significant impact on correctness, gained through the use of UniMod instead of conventional programming (i.e., code-centric programming).