A state/event-based model-checking approach for the analysis of abstract system properties.

AbstractWe present the UMC framework for the formal analysis of concurrent systems specified by collections of UML state machines. The formal model of a system is given by a doubly labelled transition system, and the logic used to specify its properties is the state-based and event-based logic UCTL. UMC is an on-the-fly analysis framework which allows the user to interactively explore a UML model, to visualize abstract behavioural slices of it and to perform local model checking of UCTL formulae. An automotive scenario from the service-oriented computing (SOC) domain is used as case study to illustrate our approach

Towards an incremental development of UML specifications

RapportSpecifying complex systems is a difficult task which cannot be done in one step. Step-by-step development processes have been studied using formal methods, based on refinement mechanisms. The refinement is a key feature for incrementally developing more and more detailed models, preserving correctness in each step. Our purpose is to instantiate this process when using UML/OCL notations. We illustrate it by some development steps of an access control system. At each step, decisions are formalized in terms of different UML notations, making evolve an initial model which expresses the fundamental properties of the system. We show that these properties are preserved by each development step

Interim research assessment 2003-2005 - Computer Science

This report primarily serves as a source of information for the 2007 Interim Research Assessment Committee for Computer Science at the three technical universities in the Netherlands. The report also provides information for others interested in our research activities

A Model-Driven Framework to Support Games Development: An Application to Serious Games

Model Driven Engineering (MDE) is a software development approach which focuses on the creation of models to represent a domain with the aim of automatically generating software artefact using a set of software tools. This approach enables practitioners to produce a variation of software in by reusing the concepts in the domain model without worrying about the technical intricacies of software development. Therefore, this approach can help to increases productivity and it makes software design easier for the practitioners. The application of this approach into games development domain presents an interesting proposition and could help to simplify production of computer games.Computer games are interactive entertainment software designed and developed to engage users to participate in goal-directed play. Many find computer gaming to be persuasive and engaging, and they believe that through the application of game design and game technology in non-entertainment domains can create a positive impact. Computer games designed primarily for non-entertainment purpose are generally known as serious games. The development of games software, in no relation to the intended purpose of it, is technically complex and it requires specialist skills and knowledge. This is the major barrier that hinders domain experts who intend to apply computer gaming into their respective domains. Much research is already underway to address this challenge, whereby many of which have chosen to use readily available commercial-off-the-shelf games while others have attempted to develop serious games in-house or collaboratively with industry expertise. However, these approaches present issues including appropriateness of the serious game content and its activities, reliability of serious games developed and the financial cost involved. The MDE approach promises new hopes to the domain experts, especially to those with little or no technical knowledge who intend produce their own computer games. Using this approach, the technical aspects of games development can be hidden from the domain experts through the automated generation of software artefact. This simplifies the production of computer games and could provide the necessary support to help non-technical domain experts to realise their vision on serious gaming.This thesis investigates the development of a model-driven approach and technologies to aid non-technical domain experts in computer games production. It presents a novel model-driven games development framework designed to aid non-technical domain experts in producing computer games. A prototype based on the model-driven games development framework has been implemented to demonstrate the applicability of this solution. The framework has been validated through the prototypical implementations and these have been evaluated. A case study has been conducted to present a use-case scenario and to examine if this approach can help non-technical domain experts in producing computer games and also to find out if it would lower the barrier towards adoption of game-based learning as an alternative teaching and learning approach.The work in this thesis contributes to the area of software engineering in games. The contributions made in this research includes (1) a blueprint for model-driven engineering for games development, (2) a reusable formalised approach to document computer game design and (3) a model of game software that is independent of implementation platform

An extended configurable UML activity diagram and a transformation algorithm for business process reference modeling

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions provide generic off-the-shelf reference models usually known as best practices . The configuration !individualization of the reference model to meet specific requirements of business end users however, is a difficult task. The available modeling languages do not provide a complete configurable language that could be used to model configurable reference models. More specifically, there is no algorithm that monitors the transformation of configurable UML Activity Diagram (AD) models while preserving the syntactic correctness of the model. To fill these gaps we propose an extended UML AD modeling language which we named Configurable UML Activity Diagram (C-UML AD). The C-UML AD is used to represent a reference model while showing all the variation points and corresponding dependencies within the model. The C-UML AD covers the requirements and attributes of a configurable modeling language as prescribed by earlier researchers who developed Configurable EPC (C-EPC). We also propose a complete algorithm that transforms the C-UML AD business model to an individual consistent UML AD business model, where the end user\u27s configuration values are consistent with the constraints of the model. Meanwhile, the syntactic correctness of the transformed model is preserved. We validated the Transformation Algorithm by showing how all the transformation steps of the algorithm preserve the syntactic correctness of any given configurable business model, as prescribed by earlier researchers, and by running it on different sets of test scenarios to demonstrate its correctness. We developed a tool to apply the Transformation Algorithm and to demonstrate its validity on a set of test cases as well as a real case study that was used by earlier researchers who developed the C-EPC

Methodology for Evaluating a Domain-Specific Model Transformation Language

Sobald ein System durch mehrere Modelle beschrieben wird, können sich diese verschiedenen Beschreibungen auch gegenseitig widersprechen. Modelltransformationen sind ein geeignetes Mittel, um das selbst dann zu vermeiden, wenn die Modelle von mehreren Parteien parallel bearbeitet werden. Es gibt mittlerweile reichhaltige Forschungsergebnisse dazu, Änderungen zwischen zwei Modellen zu transformieren. Allerdings ist die Herausforderung, Modelltransformationen zwischen mehr als zwei Modellen zu entwickeln, bislang unzureichend gelöst. Die Gemeinsamkeiten-Sprache ist eine deklarative, domänenspezifische Programmiersprache, mit der multidirektionale Modelltransformationen programmiert werden können, indem bidirektionale Abbildungsspezifikationen kombiniert werden. Da sie bis jetzt jedoch nicht empirisch validiert wurde, stellt es eine offene Frage dar, ob die Sprache dazu geeignet ist, realistische Modelltransformationen zu entwickeln, und welche Vorteile die Sprache gegenüber einer alternativen Programmiersprache für Modelltransformationen bietet. In dieser Abschlussarbeit entwerfe ich eine Fallstudie, mit der die Gemeinsamkeiten-Sprache evaluiert wird. Ich bespreche die Methodik und die Validität dieser Fallstudie. Weiterhin präsentiere ich Kongruenz, eine neue Eigenschaft für bidirektionale Modelltransformationen. Sie stellt sicher, dass die beiden Richtungen einer Transformation zueinander kompatibel sind. Ich leite aus praktischen Beispielen ab, warum wir erwarten können, dass Transformationen normalerweise kongruent sein werden. Daraufhin diskutiere ich die Entwurfsentscheidungen hinter einer Teststrategie, mit der zwei Modelltransformations- Implementierungen, die beide dieselbe Konsistenzspezifikation umsetzen, getestet werden können. Die Teststrategie beinhaltet auch einen praktischen Einsatzzweck von Kongruenz. Zuletzt stelle ich Verbesserungen der Gemeinsamkeiten-Sprache vor. Die Beiträge dieser Abschlussarbeit ermöglichen gemeinsam, eine Fallstudie zu Programmiersprachen für Modelltransformationen umzusetzen. Damit kann ein besseres Verständnis der Vorteile dieser Sprachen erzielt werden. Kongruenz kann die Benutzerfreundlichkeit beliebiger Modelltransformationen verbessern und könnte sich als nützlich herausstellen, um Modelltransformations-Netzwerke zu konstruieren. Die Teststrategie kann auf beliebige Akzeptanztests für Modelltransformationen angewendet werden