Alloy4SPV : A Formal Framework for Software Process Verification

In this paper we present a framework for software process verification called Alloy4SPV which uses a subset of UML2 Activity Diagrams as a process modeling language. In order to achieve software process verification, we i) define a formal model of our process modeling language using first-order logic, ii) we give it a formal semantics based on the fUML standard, and iii) we implement this formalization using the Alloy language [1]. In order to ease its adoption by process modelers, our framework comes with a graphical tool and a ready to use and customizable set of software process properties. We categorize these properties into two categories, syntactical and behavioral. We extend the set of behavioral properties we identified from the literature with two new categories that we defined, namely, organizational properties which relate to resource management and planning during process execution and business properties which are project/process specific properties.

[1]  Lois M. L. Delcambre.  Conceptual Modeling - ER 2005, 24th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, Klagenfurt, Austria, October 24-28, 2005, Proceedings , 2005, ER.

[2]  Steve A. Schneider,et al.  Formal Verification of Tokeneer Behaviours Modelled in fUML Using CSP , 2010, ICFEM.

[3]  Wil M. P. van der Aalst,et al.  Data-Flow Anti-patterns: Discovering Data-Flow Errors in Workflows , 2009, CAiSE.

[4]  Natalia Sidorova,et al.  Analyzing control-flow and data-flow in workflow processes in a unified way , 2008 .

[5]  Wil M. P. van der Aalst,et al.  Pattern-Based Analysis of the Control-Flow Perspective of UML Activity Diagrams , 2005, ER.

[6]  Nancy A. Day,et al.  Temporal Logic Model Checking in Alloy , 2012, ABZ.

[7]  Wil M. P. van der Aalst,et al.  Workflow Patterns , 2003, Distributed and Parallel Databases.

[8]  Amel Mammar,et al.  A formal semantics of timed activity diagrams and its PROMELA translation , 2005, 12th Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference (APSEC'05).

[9]  Ying Liu,et al.  A static compliance-checking framework for business process models , 2007, IBM Syst. J..

[10]  Don-Lin Yang,et al.  Applying UML and software simulation for process definition, verification, and validation , 2008, Inf. Softw. Technol..

[11]  Daniel Jackson,et al.  Software Abstractions - Logic, Language, and Analysis , 2006 .

[12]  Stefanie Rinderle-Ma,et al.  Change patterns and change support features - Enhancing flexibility in process-aware information systems , 2008, Data Knowl. Eng..

[13]  Alcino Cunha.  Bounded Model Checking of Temporal Formulas with Alloy , 2014, ABZ.

[14]  Marie-Pierre Gervais,et al.  UML4SPM: a UML2.0-Based metamodel for software process modelling , 2005, MoDELS'05.

[15]  Kevin Lano,et al.  Slicing of UML models using model transformations , 2010, MODELS'10.

[16]  Dirk Fahland,et al.  Instantaneous Soundness Checking of Industrial Business Process Models , 2009, BPM.

[17]  Marie-Pierre Gervais,et al.  Formalization of fUML: An Application to Process Verification , 2014, CAiSE.

[18]  Rajeev Alur,et al.  A Theory of Timed Automata , 1994, Theor. Comput. Sci..

[19]  Moe Thandar Wynn,et al.  Soundness of workflow nets: classification, decidability, and analysis , 2011, Formal Aspects of Computing.

[20]  Wil M. P. van der Aalst,et al.  The Application of Petri Nets to Workflow Management , 1998, J. Circuits Syst. Comput..

[21]  Yang Dong,et al.  Using /spl pi/-calculus to formalize UML activity diagram for business process modeling , 2003, 10th IEEE International Conference and Workshop on the Engineering of Computer-Based Systems, 2003. Proceedings..

[22]  Rik Eshuis,et al.  Symbolic model checking of UML activity diagrams , 2006, TSEM.

[23]  Marie-Pierre Gervais,et al.  Generation of process using multi-objective genetic algorithm , 2013, ICSSP 2013.

[24]  Jeremy Gibbons,et al.  A Process-Algebraic Approach to Workflow Specification and Refinement , 2007, SC@ETAPS.

[25]  Ajitha Rajan,et al.  Requirements Coverage as an Adequacy Measure for Conformance Testing , 2008, ICFEM.

[26]  Kurt Jensen.  Coloured Petri Nets , 1992, EATCS Monographs in Theoretical Computer Science.

[27]  Jan Mendling,et al.  Faulty EPCs in the SAP Reference Model , 2006, Business Process Management.

[28]  Hyo Taeg Jung,et al.  Transformation of an activity model into a Colored Petri Net model , 2010, Trendz in Information Sciences & Computing(TISC2010).

[29]  Wil M. P. van der Aalst,et al.  Workflow Patterns: On the Expressive Power of (Petri-net-based) Workflow Languages. , 2002 .

[30]  Jean-Marc Jézéquel,et al.  A Comparison of Six UML-Based Languages for Software Process Modeling , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.

[31]  Maria E. Orlowska,et al.  Analyzing Process Models Using Graph Reduction Techniques , 2000, Inf. Syst..

[32]  Indrakshi Ray,et al.  UML2Alloy: a challenging model transformation , 2007, MODELS'07.