Article

Abstract operational semantics for use case maps

Authors:

Jameleddine Hassine,

Juergen Rilling,

Rachida DssouliAuthors Info & Claims

FORTE'05: Proceedings of the 25th IFIP WG 6.1 international conference on Formal Techniques for Networked and Distributed Systems

Pages 366 - 380

https://doi.org/10.1007/11562436_27

Published: 02 October 2005 Publication History

Abstract

Scenario-driven requirement specifications are widely used to capture and represent functional requirements. Use Case Maps (UCM) is being standardized as part of the User Requirements Notation (URN), the most recent addition to ITU–T’s family of languages. UCM models allow the description of functional requirements and high-level designs at early stages of the development process. Recognizing the importance of having a well defined semantic, we propose, in this paper, a concise and rigorous formal semantics for Use Case Maps (UCM). The proposed formal semantics addresses UCM’s operational semantics and covers the key language functional constructs. These semantics are defined in terms of Multi-Agent Abstract State Machines that describes how UCM specifications are executed and eliminates ambiguities hidden in the informal language definition. The resulting operational semantics are embedded in an ASM-UCM simulation engine and are expressed in AsmL, an advanced ASM-based executable specification language. The proposed ASM-UCM engine provides an environment for executing and simulating UCM specifications. We illustrate our approach using an example of a simplified call connection.

References

[1]

Amyot D., Formalization of Timethreads Using LOTOS. Master Thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Ottawa, Canada, 1994.

[2]

Amyot D. and Andrade R., Description of wireless intelligent network services with Use Case Maps, SBRC'99, 17th Simpósio Brasileiro de Redes de Computadores, Salvador, Brazil, May 1999, pp. 418-433.

[3]

Amyot D., Buhr R. J. A., Gray T. and Logrippo L., Use Case Maps for the Capture and Validation of Distributed Systems Requirements. RE'99, Fourth IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering, Limerick, Ireland, June 1999, 44-53. http://www. UseCaseMaps.org/pub/re99.pdf

Digital Library

[4]

Amyot D. and Eberlein A., An Evaluation of Scenario Notations and Construction Approaches for Telecommunication Systems Development. In: Telecommunications Systems Journal, 24:1, 61-94, September 2003.

Digital Library

[5]

Amyot D. and Miga, A., Use Case Maps Document Type Definition 0.19. Working document, June 2000. http://www. UseCaseMaps.org/xml/

[6]

AsmL for Microsoft. Net, http://www.research.microsoft.com/foundations/asml, 2003

[7]

Börger E., Cavarra A. and Riccobene E., An ASM Semantics for UML Activity Diagrams. In T. Rus, editor, Proc. Algebraic Methodology and Software Technology, 8th International Conference, AMAST 2000, LNCS 1826. Springer, 2000.

Digital Library

[8]

Börger E., Glässer U. and Muller W., Formal Definition of an Abstract VHDL'93 Simulator By EA-Machines. In C. Delgado Kloos and P. T. Breuer, eds., Formal Semantics for VHDL, 107-139. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1995.

[9]

Börger E. and Rosenzweig D., A mathematical definition of full Prolog. In Science of Computer Programming, vol. 24, 249-286. North-Holland, 1994.

Digital Library

[10]

Börger E. and Schulte W., Defining the Java Virtual Machine as Platform for Provably Correct Java Compilation. In L. Brim, J. Gruska, and J. Zlatuska, editors, Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science, MFCS 98, Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer, 1998.

Digital Library

[11]

Börger E. and Stärk R., Abstract State Machines: A Method for High-Level System Design and Analysis. Springer-Verlag, 2003.

Digital Library

[12]

Buhr, R. J. A., Use Case Maps as Architectural Entities for Complex Systems. In: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 24(12) (Dec. 1998) 1131-1155.

Digital Library

[13]

Buhr R. J. A., Elammari M., Gray T. and Mankovski S., Applying Use Case Maps to multiagent systems: A feature interaction example. In 31st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1998.

Digital Library

[14]

Del Castillo G. and Winter K., Model checking support for the ASM high-level language. In S. Graf and M. Schwartzbach, editors, 6th International Conference for Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems (TACAS 2000), volume 1785 of LNCS, pp 331-346. Springer-Verlag, 2000.

Digital Library

[15]

Eschbach R., Glässer U., Gotzhein R., von Löwis M. and Prinz A., Formal Definition of SDL-2000 - Compiling and Running SDL Specifications as ASM Models. In Journal of Universal Computer Science, 7 (11): 1025-1050, Springer Pub. Co., Nov. 2001.

[16]

Gurevich Y., Evolving algebra 1993: Lipari guide. In E. Börger, editor, Specification and Validation Methods. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995.

Digital Library

[17]

ISO, Information Processing Systems, OSI: LOTOS - A Formal Description Technique Based on the Temporal Ordering of Observational Behaviour. IS 8807, Geneva, 1989.

[18]

ITU-T, Recommendation Z.150, User Requirements Notation (URN)- Language Requirements and Framework, Geneva, Switzerland. http://www. UseCaseMaps.org/urn/

[19]

ITU-T, URN Focus Group (2002), Draft Rec. Z.152 - UCM: Use Case Map Notation (UCM). Geneva.

[20]

Miga A., Amyot D., Bordeleau F., Cameron C. and Woodside M., Deriving Message Sequence Charts from Use Case Maps Scenario Specifications. Tenth SDL Forum (SDL'01), Copenhagen, 2001. LNCS 2078, 268-287.

Digital Library

[21]

Nakamura N., Kikuno T., Hassine J., and Logrippo L., Feature Interaction Filtering with Use Case Maps at Requirements Stage. In: Sixth International Workshop on Feature Interactions in Telecommunications and Software Systems (FIW'00), Glasgow, Scotland, UK, May 2000.

[22]

Petriu. D. C. and Woodside M., Software Performance Models from System Scenarios in Use CaseMaps, Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Performance Evaluation, Modelling Techniques and Tools, p.141-158, April 14-17, 2002.

Digital Library

[23]

Use Case Maps Web Page and UCM Users Group, 1999. http://www. UseCaseMaps.org

[24]

Wallace C., The Semantics of the C++ Programming Language. In E. Börger, editor, Specification and Validation Methods. Oxford University Press, 1995.

Digital Library

Cited By

Vizovitin NNepomniaschy VStenenko A(2015)Verifying UCM Specifications of Distributed Systems Using Colored Petri NetsCybernetics and Systems Analysis10.1007/s10559-015-9714-051:2(213-222)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10559-015-9714-0
Hassine JGherbi A(2011)Exploring early availability requirements using use case mapsProceedings of the 15th international conference on Integrating System and Software Modeling10.1007/978-3-642-25264-8_6(54-68)Online publication date: 5-Jul-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-642-25264-8_6
Hassine JRilling JDssouli R(2010)An evaluation of timed scenario notationsJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2009.09.01483:2(326-350)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.jss.2009.09.014
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Abstract operational semantics for use case maps
1. Theory of computation
  1. Semantics and reasoning
    1. Program semantics

Recommendations

The formal semantics of SDL-2000: status and perspectives
ITU-T system design languages (SDL)

In November 1999, the current version of specification and description language (SDL), commonly referred to as SDL-2000, passed through ITU-T. In November 2000, the formal semantics of SDL- 2000 was officially approved to become part of the SDL language ...
An ASM Operational Semantics for Use Case Maps
RE '05: Proceedings of the 13th IEEE International Conference on Requirements Engineering

Scenario-driven requirement specifications are widely used to capture and represent functional requirements. Use Case Maps (UCM) is being standardized as part of the User Requirements Notation (URN), the most recent addition to ITU-T s family of ...
Formal semantics for interacting UML subsystems
FMOODS '02: Proceedings of the IFIP TC6/WG6.1 Fifth International Conference on Formal Methods for Open Object-Based Distributed Systems V

So far most work on formal semantics for the Unified Modeling Language (UML) has concentrated on single diagrams. To provide a formal foundation for complete system specifications, one needs to put models for the different diagrams into context. We ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image Guide Proceedings

FORTE'05: Proceedings of the 25th IFIP WG 6.1 international conference on Formal Techniques for Networked and Distributed Systems

October 2005

556 pages

ISBN:354029189X

Editor:
Farn Wang
Grad. Inst. of Electronic Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taiwan, ROC

Sponsors

Ministry of Education, Taiwan
Inst. of Inf. Science, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, ROC: Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, ROC
National Science Council, Taiwan
Center for Information and Electronic Technologies, NTU: Center for Information and Electronic Technologies, NTU
Graduate Inst. of Communication Eng., NTU: Graduate Institute of Communication Engineering, NTU

Publisher

Springer-Verlag

Berlin, Heidelberg

Publication History

Published: 02 October 2005

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Article

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

8
Total Citations
View Citations
0
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)0
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0

Reflects downloads up to 13 Nov 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Vizovitin NNepomniaschy VStenenko A(2015)Verifying UCM Specifications of Distributed Systems Using Colored Petri NetsCybernetics and Systems Analysis10.1007/s10559-015-9714-051:2(213-222)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10559-015-9714-0
Hassine JGherbi A(2011)Exploring early availability requirements using use case mapsProceedings of the 15th international conference on Integrating System and Software Modeling10.1007/978-3-642-25264-8_6(54-68)Online publication date: 5-Jul-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-642-25264-8_6
Hassine JRilling JDssouli R(2010)An evaluation of timed scenario notationsJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2009.09.01483:2(326-350)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.jss.2009.09.014
Hassine J(2010)AsmL-based concurrency semantic variations for timed use case mapsProceedings of the Second international conference on Abstract State Machines, Alloy, B and Z10.1007/978-3-642-11811-1_4(34-46)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-642-11811-1_4
Hassine J(2009)Early schedulability analysis with timed use case mapsProceedings of the 14th international SDL conference on Design for motes and mobiles10.5555/1812885.1812894(98-114)Online publication date: 22-Sep-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1812885.1812894
Hassine JRilling JDssouli R(2007)Formal verification of use case maps with real time extensionsProceedings of the 13th international SDL Forum conference on Design for dependable systems10.5555/1779934.1779953(225-241)Online publication date: 18-Sep-2007
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1779934.1779953
Shiri MHassine JRilling JStirewalt KEgyed AFischer B(2007)Feature interaction analysisProceedings of the 22nd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering10.1145/1321631.1321703(437-440)Online publication date: 5-Nov-2007
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1321631.1321703
Hassine JRilling JDssouli R(2006)Timed use case mapsProceedings of the 5th international conference on System Analysis and Modeling: language Profiles10.1007/11951148_7(99-114)Online publication date: 31-May-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/11951148_7

View Options

View options

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Table of Contents