Ontology-Based Transformation and Verification of UML Class Model

Abdul Hafeez¹, Syed Abbas², and Aqeel-ur-Rehman³

¹Department of Computer Science, SMI University, Karachi

²Faculty Engineering Science and Technology, Indus University, Karachi

³Faculty of Engineering Science and Technology, Hamdard University, Karachi

Abstract: Software models describe structures, relationships and features of the software system. Especially, in Model Driven Engineering (MDE), they are considered as first-class elements instead of programming code and all software development activities move around these models. In MDE, programming code is automatically generated by the models and models’ defects can implicitly transfer to the code. These defects can harder to discover and rectify. Model verification is a promising solution to the problem. The Unified Modelling Language (UML) class model is an important part of UML and is used in both analysis and design. However, UML only provides graphical elements without any formal foundation. Therefore, verification of formal properties such as consistency, satisfiability and consequences are not possible in UML. This paper mainly focuses on ontology-based transformation and verification of the UML class model elements which have not been addressed in any existing verification methods e.g. xor association constraint, and dependencies relationships. We validate the scalability and effectiveness of the proposed solution using various UML class models. The empirical study shows that the proposed approach scales in the presence of the large and complex model.

Keywords: UML Class Model Verification, Dependency Relationship, XOR Association Constraints.

Received September 11, 2017; accepted January 28, 2019