An Automated Transformation Approach for Requirement Specification

International audienceUse cases are often useful in capturing requirements by defining goal-oriented set of interactions between the system and its environment. Formalization of precise requirement is then important for context-aware verification based on use cases scenarios in the form of contexts. In this paper, we propose a high-level formalism for expressing requirements based on interaction overview diagrams that orchestrate activity diagrams automatically transformed from textual use cases. Our approach is qualified as context-aware model-checking, it supposes the availability of a model of the system as concurrent communicating automata and a specification language for describing requirements. Specification of requirements is performed through transformation phases to generate intermediate artefacts able to reduce the semantic gap between informal and informal requirement. The transformation is based on meta-models implemented on Ecore environment, algorithm and rules are defined using QVT Relational language, and primarily illustrated on an academic example

Precise use cases in a context-aware model-checking approach

International audienceFormal verification exhibits well known benefits but comes at the price of formalising precise and sound requirements, what often remains a challenging task for engineers. We propose a high-level formalism for expressing requirements based on interaction overview diagrams, which orchestrate activity diagrams that we automatically derived from use cases. Informal requirements are transformed into scenarios which fuel a context-aware model-checking approach. The approach assumes the availability of a formal model of the system, such as concurrent and communicating automata and a set of requirements specified in the form of contexts, which point out boundaries between the system and its environment. The requirement specification approach blends elaboration and transformation phases. Thanks to this blending, the semantic gap between informal and formal requirements is reduced, while model-checking is improved by contexts modelling. As a consequence, engineers gain support for moving towards formal verification

Context-aware approach for formal verification

International audienceThe Context-aware approach has proven to be an effective technique for software model-checking verification. It focuseson the explicit modelling of environment as one or more contexts. In this area, specifying precise requirement is achallenged task for engineer since often environmental conditions lack of precision. A DSL, called CDL, has beenproposed to facilitate the specification of requirement and context. However, such language is still low-level and errorprone, difficult to grasp on complex models and assessment about its usability is still mitigated. In this paper, we propose ahigh level formalism of CDL to facilitate specifying contexts based on interaction overview diagrams that orchestrateactivity diagrams automatically transformed from textual use cases. Our approach highlights the boundaries between thesystem and its environment. It is qualified as model-checking context-aware that aims to reduce the semantic gap betweeninformal and formal requirements, hence the objective is to assist and encourage engineers to put sufficient details toaccomplish effectively the specification process

A High-level Formalism to Elaborate Context for a Context-aware Verification Approach

International audienceSpecification of precise requirement is a key element to realize effectively the model-checking verification. In a context-aware framework, the technique is considered through a set of specific environmental conditions in the form of contexts. A DSL, called CDL, has been proposed to facilitate the specification of requirement by context elaboration. However, it still low-level, error prone, difficult to grasp on complex models and its usability is mitigated. In this paper, we propose a high level formalism of CDL to assist the specification process by describing the system requirements using interaction overview diagrams. The objective is to generate CDL models through such intermediate formalism by orchestrating activity diagrams transformed from informal use cases. Thus, the semantic gap between informal and formal requirements is reduced and engineers are helped towards formal verification