Flexible Aspect-Oriented Design Model Checking

An aspect-oriented design model is composed of a primary design model and an aspect model, each of which has a different origin and pursues different goals. How to ensure the correctness of the composition of a primary design model and an aspect model has become an important issue. In this paper, we validate an aspect-oriented design model using the UML profile extension mechanism. With this mechanism, engineers can utilize the ICER tool to find errors in an aspect-oriented design model using the instance-of relationship. Moreover, the profile extension mechanism also provides engineers with an ability to introduce their own validation of an aspect-oriented design model. This flexibility allows engineers to express the special requirements in a particular development environment. We also illustrate how ICER can find errors in a real aspect-oriented design model composed by the UML metamodel and a creation aspect model.