Skip to main content

An Extensible Operational Semantics for UML Activity Diagrams

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Software Engineering and Formal Methods (SEFM 2015)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 9276))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

This paper presents an operational semantics for UML activity diagrams, which can be extended according to domain-specific needs. The purpose of this semantics is three-fold: to give a robust basis for verifying model correctness; to help validate model transformations; and to provide a well-formed basis for assessing whether a proposed extension/interpretation of the modeling language is consistent with the standard. The challenges of a general formal framework for UML models include the semi-formality of the semantics specification, the extensibility of the language, and (sometimes deliberate, sometimes accidental) under-specification of model behavior in the standard. We also propose the use of simulation relations to verify whether a language extension is consistent with the UML standard.

Research supported by NSF Grant CCF-0926194.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Due to space limitation, this paper only introduces a subset of the semantics. Find the complete semantics in www.cs.umd.edu/~rance/.

References

  1. Börger, E., Cavarra, A., Riccobene, E.: An ASM semantics for UML activity diagrams. In: Rus, T. (ed.) AMAST 2000. LNCS, vol. 1816, pp. 293–308. Springer, Heidelberg (2000)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  2. Broy, M., Cengarle, M.: Uml formal semantics: lessons learned. Softw. Syst. Model. 10(4), 441–446 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Daw, Z., Cleaveland, R., Vetter, M.: Formal verification of software-based medical devices considering medical guidelines. Int. J. Comput. Assist. Radiol. Surg. 9(1), 145–153 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Daw, Z., Vetter, M.: Deterministic UML models for interconnected activities and state machines. In: Schürr, A., Selic, B. (eds.) MODELS 2009. LNCS, vol. 5795, pp. 556–570. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  5. Grönniger, H., Reiß, D., Rumpe, B.: Towards a semantics of activity diagrams with semantic variation points. In: Petriu, D.C., Rouquette, N., Haugen, Ø. (eds.) MODELS 2010, Part I. LNCS, vol. 6394, pp. 331–345. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  6. Gulan, S., Johr, S., Kretschmer, R., Rieger, S., Ditze, M.: Graphical modelling meets formal methods. In: IEEE Conference on Industrial Informatics (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Knieke, C., Schindler, B., Goltz, U., Rausch, A.: Defining domain specific operational semantics for activity diagrams. Technical report, TU Clausthal (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  8. OMG: Unified Modeling Language, Superstructure, Version 2.4.1 (2011). http://www.omg.org/spec/UML/2.4.1/Superstructure/PDF

  9. Park, D.: Concurrency and automata on infinite sequences. Technical report, Coventry, UK, UK (1981)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Staines, T.: Intuitive mapping of uml 2 activity diagrams into fundamental modeling concept petri net diagrams and colored petri nets. In: IEEE Conference on Engineering of Computer Based Systems, March 2008, pp. 191–200 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Störrle, H.: Semantics and verification of data flow in uml 2.0 activities. Electron. Notes Theoret. Comput. Sci. 127(4), 35–52 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zamira Daw .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this paper

Cite this paper

Daw, Z., Cleaveland, R. (2015). An Extensible Operational Semantics for UML Activity Diagrams. In: Calinescu, R., Rumpe, B. (eds) Software Engineering and Formal Methods. SEFM 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9276. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22969-0_25

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22969-0_25

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-22968-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-22969-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics