Evolution and adoption of UML-based development tools

This research tests nine hypotheses to examine the evolution and adoption of development tools that use the Unified Modeling Language (UML). Data for 70 suppliers and 53 buyers of these tools were used to: (i) measure the associations between stages of the life-cycle, supplier size, and product category, (ii) identify the temporal patterns of product, supplier and buyer diversity, and new suppliers and new buyers, and (iii) identify the reasons for which suppliers and buyers commit to development tools that use the Unified Modeling Language. The results are relevant to: (i) researchers interested in the adoption and diffusion of new technologies, (ii) product managers and sales managers of development tools, and (iii) market analysts. This research: (i) develops a method to identify reasons for buyer and seller commitment to UML-based development tools, and (ii) validates the density-dependence model using buyer data on UML-based development tools.