Constraint-Based Software Specifications and Verification Using UML

Chin-Feng FAN  Chun-Yin CHENG 

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information and Systems  Vol.E89-D  No.6  pp.1914-1922
Publication Date: 2006/06/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1361
Print ISSN: 0916-8532
Type of Manuscript: PAPER
Category: Software Engineering
Keyword: 
constraints,  SpecTRM-RL,  UML,  OCL,  fault trees, 

Full Text: PDF(762.9KB)

Summary: 
Constraint-based software specifications enable run-time monitoring to detect probable risk events and ensure the desired system behavior. SpecTRM-RL is a well-developed constraint-based specification method for computer-controlled systems. However, it is desirable to express constraints in familiar visual models. To provide better visualization and popularity, we developed methods to represent all the SpecTRM-RL constraint types in UML. We have also extended SpecTRM's constraints by adding relational and global constraints, and then expressed them in OCL. Safety verification of these specifications is also proposed. We developed a systematic way to construct fault trees for safety analysis based on UML diagrams. Due to the generality of UML as well as the defensive manner of constraints and fault tree analysis, our approach can be adapted for both general applications and safety-critical applications.