M363, Software Engineering, uses, among other things, a range of UML diagrams. In particular, it teaches sequence diagrams. Therefore, we have extended the capabilities of our revision tool to deal with sequence diagrams.

The sequence diagram revision tool, SD-Exerciser, has similar capabilities to the ERD Exerciser: the ability to create sequence diagrams and draw solutions to typical design exercises. However, it incorporates two further functionalities:

• it checks the syntax of a user’s sequence diagram and reports faults (there is more scope to draw invalid diagrams with sequence diagrams than entity-relationship diagrams);
• it suggests possible changes to a sequence diagram that will repair many of the more common types of syntax error.

In 2009, the SD-Exerciser (in prototype form) is being offered to students of M363 for testing.