Consistency by construction: The case of MERODE

Abstract

Modeling languages such as UML offer a set of basic models to describe a software system from different views and at different levels of abstraction. Tools supporting an unrestricted usage of these UML models cannot guarantee the consistency between multiple models/views, due to the lack of a formal definition of the semantics of UML diagrams. A better alternative that does allow for automatic consistency checking is modeling according to the single model principle. This approach is based on the conception of a single model, for which different views are constructed, and with an automatic or semi-automatic generation or consistency checking among these views. Three basic approaches to consistency checking are consistency by analysis, consistency by monitoring and consistency by construction. In this paper we illustrate the consistency by construction approach by means of the conceptual domain modeling approach MERODE and its associated case-tool MERMAID. We also illustrate how consistency by construction improves the validity and completeness of the conceptual model. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.