AUTOMATIC SYNTHESIS OF BEHAVIORAL OBJECT SPECIFICATIONS FROM SCENARIOS

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Khriss, Ismaïl | Elkoutbi, Mohammed | Keller, Rudolf K.

Affiliations: Codagen Technologies Corporation Montréal, Québec, Canada | Rabat, Morocco École Nationale Supérieure dInformatique et dAnalyse des Systèmes | Zühlke Engineering AG Schlieren, Switzerland

Abstract: The use of scenarios has become a popular technique for requirements elicitation and specification building. Since scenarios capture only partial descriptions of system behavior, an approach for scenario composition and integration is needed to produce more complete specifications. The Unified Modeling Language (UML), which has become a standard notation for object-oriented modeling, provides a suitable framework for scenario acquisition using Use Case diagrams and Collaboration diagrams and for behavioral specification using Statechart diagrams; yet it does not propose any specific modeling process, let alone a process for transforming scenarios into behavioral specifications. In this paper, we suggest a four-step process for synthesizing behavioral specifications from scenarios. It automatically generates from a given set of Collaboration diagrams the Statechart diagrams of all the objects involved. An automatic analysis of specifications in respect to consistency and completeness is also provided. Our approach is incremental and is fully compliant with the UML. Furthermore, it provides an elegant solution to the problem of scenario interleaving. The underlying algorithms have been implemented and validated with several examples, and they are fit for integration into CASE tools supporting the UML.

Journal: Journal of Integrated Design & Process Science, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 53-77, 2001