Detecting and resolving semantic pathologies in UML sequence diagrams

ABSTRACT

Scenario based requirements specifications are the industry norm for defining communicating systems. These scenarios are often captured in the form of UML/MSC sequence diagrams. Errors are often introduced at this stage of the development process, which are costly to resolve if they are not detected early. This paper is concerned with the automatic detection and resolution of semantic errors that can occur in such scenarios.The paper discusses a semantic interpretation of scenario-based requirements and various types of defects (or pathologies) that can be detected. The paper defines the semantics and defects within a partial order theoretic framework. We introduce a UML 2.0 profile that captures various domain specific communication semantics, which can be used to determine the relevance of detected pathologies when different underlying implementation assumptions are made. The paper also discusses how to automatically resolve pathologies by using this profile to adapt the communication architecture in the requirements model.

REFERENCES

• 1: Rajeev Alur , Gerard J. Holzmann , Doron Peled, An Analyser for Mesage Sequence Charts, Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Tools and Algorithms for Construction and Analysis of Systems, p.35-48, March 27-29, 1996
• 2: Rajeev Alur , Mihalis Yannakakis, Model Checking of Message Sequence Charts, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Concurrency Theory, p.114-129, August 24-27, 1999
• 3: Baker, P., Bristow, P., Jervis, C., King, D., and Mitchell, B., Automatic Generation of Conformance Tests From Message Sequence Charts, Telecommunications and Beyond: The Broader Applicability of MSC and SDL, pp 170--198, LNCS 2599, 2003.
• 4: Boris Beizer, Software testing techniques (2nd ed.), Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, NY, 1990
• 5: Hanêne Ben-Abdallah , Stefan Leue, MESA: Support for Scenario-Based Design of Concurrent Systems, Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for Construction and Analysis of Systems, p.118-135, March 28-April 04, 1998
• 6: Barry Boehm , Victor R. Basili, Software Defect Reduction Top 10 List, Computer, v.34 n.1, p.135-137, January 2001 [doi>10.1109/2.962984]
• 7: André Engels , Sjouke Mauw , Michel A. Reniers, A Hierarchy of Communication Models for Message Sequence Charts, Proceedings of the IFIP TC6 WG6.1 Joint International Conference on Formal Description Techniques for Distributed Systems and Communication Protocols (FORTE X) and Protocol Specification, Testing and Verification (PSTV XVII), p.75-90, November 18-21, 1997
• 8: ETSI ES 201 873-1, Methods for Testing and Specification; The Testing and Control Notation version 3 (TTCN-3); Part 1: TTCN-3 Core Language, European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), 2001.
• 9: Tom Gilb, Principles of software engineering management, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1988
• 10: International Telecommunications Union: ITU-T Recommendation Z.120, Message Sequence Chart (MSC), 2000. Available from http://www.itu.int.
• 11: International Telecommunications Union: ITU-T Recommendation X.292, The Tree and Tabular Combined Notation (TTCN-2), 1997. Available from http://www.itu.int.
• 12: Robyn R. Lutz, Targeting safety-related errors during software requirements analysis, Proceedings of the 1st ACM SIGSOFT symposium on Foundations of software engineering, p.99-106, December 08-10, 1993, Los Angeles, California, United States
• 13: Mitchell, B., Thomson, R., and Jervis, C., Phase Automaton for Requirements Scenarios, Feature Interactions in Telecommunications and Software Systems VII, 77--84, IOS Press, 2003.
• 14: Nelson, M., Clark, J., and Spurlock, M.A., Curing the Software Requirements And Cost Estimating Blues, PM: Nov-Dec, 1999.
• 15: Object Management Group (OMG), Unified Modeling Language (UML): Superstructure, Version 2.0, 2003. Available from http://www.omg.org.
• 16: Object Management Group (OMG), UML Profile for Schedulability, Performance, and Time V1.1, 2005-01-02. Available from http://www.omg.org.
• 17: Telelogic, Tau documentation, Telelogic Web Site: http://www.telelogic.com, 2005.
• 18: W. Eric Wong , Joseph R. Horgan , Michael Syring , Wayne Zage, Applying Design Metrics to a Large-Scale Software System, Proceedings of the The Ninth International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering, p.273, November 04-07, 1998

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.1 Requirements/Specifications

General Terms:
Verification

Keywords:
MSC, UML 2.0, communication semantics, requirements