Formal analysis of workflows using UML 2.0 activities and graph transformation systems

Abstract

Graph transformation has recently become more and more popular as a general visual language to formally state the dynamic semantics of the designed models. Using this technique, we present a highly understandable yet precise approach to formally model the behavioral semantics of UML 2.0 Activity diagrams. Automated formal verification and analysis of UML Activities is the main advantage of our approach. In our proposal, AGG toolset is used to design Activities, then using our previous approach to model checking graph transformation systems, designers can verify and analyze designed Activity diagrams. One of the main application areas of the Activities is workflow modeling; hence to illustrate our approach, we use our proposed semantics for modeling and verification of workflows. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008.