Analysis of aspect-oriented models using graph transformation systems

Abstract

Aspect-oriented concepts are currently exploited to model systems from the beginning of their development. Aspects capture potentially cross-cutting concerns and make it easier to formulate desirable properties and to understand analysis results than in a tangled system. However, the complexity of interactions among different aspectualized entities may reduce the benefit of aspect-oriented separation of cross-cutting concerns. It is therefore desirable to detect inconsistencies as early as possible. We propose an approach for analyzing consistency at the level of requirements modeling. We use a variant of UML to model requirements in a use-case driven approach. Activities that are used to refine use cases are the joinpoints to compose cross-cutting concerns. Activities are combined with a specification of pre- and postconditions into an integrated behavior model. This model is formalized using the theory of graph transformation systems to effectively reason about its consistency. The analysis of an integrated behavior model is performed with the tool ActiGra.