JCSE, vol. 15, no. 4, pp.148-159, 2021

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5626/JCSE.2021.15.4.148

Structure-Behavior Coalescence Method for Formal Specification of UML 2.0 Sequence Diagrams

Steve Haga, Wei-Ming Ma, and William Shanchung Chao
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan (R.O.C.) Department of Information Management, Cheng-Shiu University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan (R.O.C.) SBC Architecture International, Auburn, 36849, USA

Abstract: This paper presents the structure-behavior coalescence (SBC) method for the formal specification of UML sequence diagrams. The SBC method, also named SBC sequence diagrams (SBC-SqD), includes syntax and semantics. The syntax allows the hierarchy of a sequence diagram to be represented as a parse tree. The semantic meaning of that sequence diagram is then represented by its message sending-and-receiving event transition graph (MSRETG). In order to create this MSRETG, the semantic meaning of sequence diagram (SD) modules is presented, including the meaning of these modules when they are used in a hierarchy that defines another module. Such hierarchical decomposition is formally provided for all sequence diagram modules, including all types of loops. In UML, all SD modules are also called combined fragments (CF). The obtained MSRETG has advantages over previous formal specifications, because it is a fully-complete specification and is compact and readable.

Keyword: Structure-behavior coalescence; Sequence diagram; Message sending-and-receiving event transition

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