Positive Effects of Utilizing Relationships Between Inconsistencies for more Effective Inconsistency Resolution (NIER Track)

Authors: Alexander Nöhrer, Alexander Reder and  Alexander Egyed

State-of-the-art modeling tools can help detect inconsistencies in software models. Some can even generate fixing actions for these inconsistencies. However such approaches handle inconsistencies individually, assuming that each single inconsistency is a manifestation of an individual defect.
We believe that inconsistencies are merely expressions of defects. That is, inconsistencies highlight situations under which defects are observable. However, a single defect in a software model may result in many inconsistencies and a single inconsistency may be the result of multiple defects. Inconsistencies may thus be related to other inconsistencies and we believe that during fixing, one should consider clusters of such related inconsistencies. This paper provides first evidence and emerging results that several inconsistencies can be linked to a single defect and show that with such knowledge only a subset of fixes need to be considered during inconsistency resolution.

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