From UML/OCL to SBVR specifications: A challenging transformation

UML is currently the most widely used modeling language for the specification of the conceptual schema (CS) of an information system (IS). However, UML falls short when it comes to allow business people to define in their own language (e.g. using their own terms in natural language) the policies and rules by which they run their business. To this purpose, the semantics of business vocabulary and business rules (SBVR) metamodel specification was proposed. SBVR is conceptualized optimally for business people and it is designed to be used for business purposes, independently of information systems designs.     

基于业务对象模型的业务规则语言的设计及实现

面向业务人员设计了一套类自然语言的业务规则语言,并根据其语法设计了规则语句编辑的在线提示算法,该算法能迅速提供与语法语义相容的词选项列表,引导用户完成规则录入。     

基于企业流程的需求形式化说明语言

需求说明是对需求分析结果所进行的文档化工作,其工作结果—需求规格说明在系统开发、测试、质量保证、项目管理中起着重要的作用。现有的需求规格说明绝大多数是采用自然语言来编写,由于自然语言在严密性上的缺陷,从而导致需求规格说明普通存在着三个严重的问题:模糊性、不准确性和不一致性。该文提出的基于企业流程的需求形式化说明语言,是以四元组作为描述机制,不仅能描述各活动之间的逻辑关系,而且能表达活动对信息流的操作形式,即将控制流和数据流合为一体。     

基于受限中文的轻型业务规则管理系统的设计与实现

业务规则管理是实现企业灵活多变的业务控制和客户服务的理想方案。本文介绍了业务规则管理系统的基本思想,并面向业务分析人员设计了一种受限中文业务规则语言,实现了一个轻型业务规则管理系统。     

Modeling languages for business processes and business rules: A representational analysis

Process modeling and rule modeling languages are both used to document organizational policies and procedures. To date, their synergies and overlap are under-researched. Understanding the relationship between the two modeling types would allow organizations to maximize synergies, avoid content duplication, and thus reduce their overall modeling effort. In this paper, we use the Bunge–Wand–Weber (BWW) representation theory to compare the representation capabilities of process and rule modeling languages. We perform a representational analysis of four rule modeling specifications: The Simple Rule Markup Language (SRML), the Semantic Web Rules Language (SWRL), the Production Rule Representation (PRR), and the Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR) specification. We compare their BWW representation capabilities with those of four popular conceptual process modeling languages. In our analysis, we focus on the aspects of maximum ontological completeness and minimum ontological overlap. The outcome of this study shows that no single language is internally complete with respect to the BWW representation model. We also show that a combination of two languages, in particular SRML and BPMN, appears to be better suited for combined process and rule modeling than any of these modeling languages used independently.     

Automated system for construction specification review using natural language processing

Existing attempts to automate construction document analysis are limited in understanding the varied semantic properties of different documents. Due to the semantic conflicts, the construction specification review process is still conducted manually in practice despite the promising performance of the existing approaches. This research aimed to develop an automated system for reviewing construction specifications by analyzing the different semantic properties using natural language processing techniques. The proposed method analyzed varied semantic properties of 56 different specifications from five different countries in terms of vocabulary, sentence structure, and the organizing styles of provisions. First, the authors developed a semantic thesaurus for construction terms including 208 word-replacement rules based on Word2Vec embedding to understand the different vocabularies. Second, the authors developed a named entity recognition model based on bi-directional long short-term memory with a conditional random field layer, which identified the required keywords from given provisions with an averaged F1 score of 0.928. Third, the authors developed a provision-pairing model based on Doc2Vec embedding, which identified the most relevant provisions with an average accuracy of 84.4%. The web-based prototype demonstrated that the proposed system can facilitate the construction specification review process by reducing the time spent, supplementing the reviewer’s experience, enhancing accuracy, and achieving consistency. The results contribute to risk management in the construction industry, with practitioners being able to review construction specifications thoroughly in spite of tight schedules and few available experts.     

Business policy compliance in service-oriented systems

As business policies and environments change constantly, there is a need for service-oriented systems to be compliant, yet adaptive. The solution proposed in this paper is based on a clear architectural separation of policy specification, enforcement strategy and realization. Policy compliance is worked out as a rule transformation process mediating between the business policy language SBVR and Condition-Action (CA) rules. The solution supports adaptation caused by business policy evolution as well as adaptation caused by service evolution. In addition, the paper describes a novel truly service-oriented way of implementing compliance management and enforcement of business policies drawing on Adaptive Service Oriented Architecture (ASOA).     

一个支持规约获取的形式规约语言

该文介绍了形式规约语言LFC设计的一些主要方面，并通过例子说明了LFC的一些特色。形式规约语言LFC是为支持软件形式规约的获取工作而开发的。该语言以一种新的递归函数，即定义在上下文无关语言上的递归函数为基础，以上下文无关语言为数据类型，在语言级支持规约获取。LFC语言已被用作形式规约获取系统SAQ的一部分。使用表明，LFC是一个能力强、易使用的语言，适合软件形式规约获取之用，并且适合其它一些用途。     

采用动作时序逻辑的Web服务组合方法

基于有限状态自动机理论,将Web服务建模成一个有限状态自动机。针对网络服务描述语言(WSDL)在服务行为描述方面的缺陷对其进行扩展,提出了从扩展的WSDL到动作时序逻辑(TLA)语言的转换算法,从而可以用TLA对服务行为进行形式化描述和规范,为描述Web服务提供了一个新的方法。讨论了在动作时序逻辑中,服务组合时各组件服务的有限状态自动机的组合方式,以及伴随着服务组合,单个服务的TLA规范如何组合以形成复合服务的TLA规范的问题,并在此基础上,提出了实现TLA规范正确组合的算法思想。     

Alliance of model-driven engineering with a proof-based formal approach

Model-driven engineering (MDE) promotes the use of models throughout the software development cycle in order to increase abstraction and reduce software complexity. It favors the definition of domain-specific modeling languages (DSMLs) thanks to frameworks dedicated to meta-modeling and code generation like EMF (Eclipse Modeling Framework). The standard semantics of meta-models allows interoperability between tools such as language analysers (e.g., XText), code generators (e.g., Acceleo), and also model transformation tools (e.g., ATL). However, a major limitation of MDE is the lack of formal reasoning tools allowing to ensure the correctness of models. Indeed, most of the verification activities offered by MDE tools are based on the verification of OCL constraints on instances of meta-models. However, these constraints mainly deal with structural properties of the model and often miss out its behavioral semantics. In this work, we propose to bridge the gap between MDE and the rigorous world of formal methods in order to guarantee the correctness of both structural and behavioral properties of the model. Our approach translates EMF meta-models into an equivalent formal B specification and then injects models into this specification. The equivalence between the resulting B specification and the original EMF model is kept by proven design steps leading to a rigorous MDE technique. The AtelierB prover is used to guarantee the correctness of the model’s behavior with respect to its invariant properties, and the ProB model-checker is used to animate underlying execution scenarios which are translated back to the initial EMF model. Besides the use of these automatic reasoning tools in MDE, proved B refinements are also investigated in this paper in order to gradually translate abstract EMF models to concrete models which can then be automatically compiled into a programming language.

     

Modifying LOTOS Specifications by Means of Automatable Formula-Based Integrations

The use of good (formal) specifications of software components produces a good characterization of their functionalities. This fact eases the modifiability of a module specification due to a change of requirements or to the need of an enhancement of its functionalities after the delivery to the users, and then, in general, eases also the reusability of a module. Moreover, if existing modules have a specification not based on a natural language but on the well-given syntax of a specification language, it is possible to process the needed modifications in an automatic way. This work presents a method to derive the modifications of the specification of an existing module (given by means of the LOTOS language) from a characterization of the environment, in which the new module has to be used, given by means of temporal logic formulae. The method consists of tableau-based rules that build the due modifications, and always produces a fitting solution for formulae that can be satisfied and belong to a given class.     

建模语言DSC和BPMN的对比分析

业务流程建模是业务流程管理(Business Process Management,BPM)中最为重要的环节,一个好的建模语言对业务流程的建模和开发起到非常关键的作用。各具特色的业务过程建模语言不断出现,对语言的研究、分析和比较已经成为流程设计与流程实现之间的一个重要问题。介绍了一种新的业务流程建模语言DSC(Dynamic SystemChart),并将DSC和目前比较流行的建模语言BPMN(Business Process Modeling Notation)做了比较分析。     

Aggregation in Natural Language Generation

The content of real‐world databases, knowledge bases, database models, and formal specifications is often highly redundant and needs to be aggregated before these representations can be successfully paraphrased into natural language. To generate natural language from these representations, a number of processes must be carried out, one of which is sentence planning where the task of aggregation is carried out. Aggregation, which has been called ellipsis or coordination in Linguistics, is the process that removes redundancies during generation of a natural language discourse, without losing any information.
The article describes a set of corpus studies that focus on aggregation, provides a set of aggregation rules, and finally, shows how these rules are implemented in a couple of prototype systems. We develop further the concept of aggregation and discuss it in connection with the growing literature on the subject. This work offers a new tool for the sentence planning phase of natural language generation systems.     

Requirements specification for process-control systems

The paper describes an approach to writing requirements specifications for process-control systems, a specification language that supports this approach, and an example application of the approach and the language on an industrial aircraft collision avoidance system (TCAS II). The example specification demonstrates: the practicality of writing a formal requirements specification for a complex, process-control system; and the feasibility of building a formal model of a system using a specification language that is readable and reviewable by application experts who are not computer scientists or mathematicians. Some lessons learned in the process of this work, which are applicable both to forward and reverse engineering, are also presented     

Semantic constraint specification and verification of ebXML business process specifications

Electronic Business using eXtensible Markup Language (ebXML) Business Process Specification Schema (BPSS) supports the specification of the set of elements required to configure a runtime system in order to execute a set of ebXML business transactions. The BPSS is available in two stand-alone representations; a UML version and an XML version. Due to the limitations of UML notations and XML syntax, however, the current ebXML BPSS specification is insufficient to formally specify semantic constraints of modeling elements. In this study, we propose a classification scheme for BPSS semantic constraints, and describe how to represent those semantic constraints formally using Object Constraint Language. As a way to verify a particular Business Process Specification (BPS) with formal semantic constraint modeling, we suggest a rule-based approach to represent the formal semantic constraints, and describe a detail mechanism to apply the rule-based specified constraints to the BPS in a prototype implementation.     

轨道交通控制软件中基于场景的需求分析方法

针对轨道交通控制软件的形式化方法,在实际工程应用中存在形式化建模和系统级场景验证困难的问题。提出一种面向轨道交通领域的形式化建模和需求确认及验证方法。通过非形式化、半形式化到形式化规约三步演化过程,为形式化规约构建提供模板。在对需求的确认和验证中,根据形式化规范建立需求模型,导出相关图表,基于此检查领域专家关注的场景。同时制定场景描述规则,使场景可以在需求模型中正确执行。在此基础上,从特殊变量、效率、场景质量三方面对场景进行优化,更充分地验证需求的正确性。实验结果表明,对于典型车载控制软件,该方法较传统分析方法可多探测到10%的潜在缺陷,效率提升80%以上。     

From requirements to UML models and back: how automatic processing of text can support requirements engineering

Software engineering is supposed to be a structured process, but manual tasks leave much leeway. Ideally, these tasks lie in the hands of skilled analysts and software engineers. This includes creating the textual specification of the envisioned system as well as creating models for the software engineers. Usually, there is quite a bit of erosion during the process due to requirement changes, implementation decisions, etc. To deliver the software as specified, textual requirements, models, and the actual software need to be synchronized. However, in practice, the cost of manually maintaining consistency is too high. Our requirements engineering feedback system automates the process of keeping textual specification and models consistent when the models change. To improve overall processing of natural language specifications, our approach finds flaws in natural language specifications. In addition to the already published workshop paper, we show how well our tools support even non-software-engineers in improving texts. The case studies show that we can speed up the process of creation texts with fewer flaws significantly.     

An MDE-based method for bridging different design notations

Different communities have developed plenty of design notations for software engineering in support of practical (via UML) and rigorous (via formal methods) approaches. Hence the problem of bridging these notations rises. Model-driven engineering (MDE) is a new paradigm in software engineering, which treats models and model transformations as first class citizens. Furthermore, it is seen as a promising method for bridging heterogeneous platforms. In this paper, we provide an MDE-based approach to build bridges between informal, semi-formal and formal notations: Firstly, different notations are viewed as different domain specification languages (DSLs) and introduced into MDE, especially into the ATLAS Model Management Architecture (AMMA) platform, by metamodeling. Then, ATL transformation rules are built for semantics mapping. At last, TCS-based model-to-text syntax rules are developed, allowing one to map models to programs. Consequently, different design notations in both graphical style and grammatical style are bridged. A case study of bridging OMG SysML™ to LOTOS is also illustrated showing the validity and practicability of our approach.