A Rule-based Automated Approach for Extracting Models from Source Code

We herein propose Program-oriented Modeling (POM), a novel approach to extract software models automatically from source code. The proposed approach is developed in order to satisfy the requirements of model abstraction for situations in which a model is used. The POM model extraction framework provides rule-based abstraction using the Meta-Object Facility (MOF) model transformation technology. We have also built a model extraction tool, called POM/MC, which analyzes C source code to extract Promela models for the SPIN model checker. We have applied POM/MC to an industrial software system and have shown that the proposed approach can reduce the effort involved in analyzing software faults by model checking.