Compositional Verification of UML Dynamic Models

UML dynamic models are important for software analysis and design. Verifying UML dynamic models to find design errors earlier is a key issue for ensuring software quality. Because of the characteristics such as concurrency and hierarchy, model checking of UML Statecharts and collaboration diagrams faces the problem of state explosion. In this paper, UML Statecharts is firstly structurally expressed by hierarchical automata and its semantics for open systems is introduced. Then, the synchronization composition of objects in UML collaboration diagrams is expatiated, based on which the global system behaviors can be constructed. Based on hierarchical automata and simulation relation between semantics structures, the compositional rules for verifying concurrent object systems are proposed. It makes possible that the construction of global state space will be unnecessary in model checking of UML collaboration diagrams. The hierarchical structures of UML Statecharts are also brought into the compositional verification, which makes the model checking of implementation models can be carried out through replacing detailed components by abstract specifications.