Merging of Use Case Models: Semantic Foundations

Use case models are the artifact of choice for capturing functional requirements. This typically collaborative activity makes merging a necessity. Use cases however, are often neglected when it comes to model merging, since they are commonly treated as text only items. By defining a formal syntax and semantics for use case models, manipulated within a generic metamodel for operation-based merging, we show how use case models can be effectively merged. This formal foundation allows for the modeling of use cases; defining meaningful change operations on them; and for detecting modeling inconsistencies, inconformities, and conflicts. Several practical examples validate the concepts presented: existing and planned tool support is introduced.