A general framework for formalizing UML with formal languages

Informal and graphical modeling techniques enable developers to construct abstract representations of systems. Object-oriented modeling techniques further facilitate the development process. The Unified Modeling Language (UML), an object-oriented modeling approach, could be broad enough in scope to represent a variety of domains and gain widespread use. Currently, UML comprises several different notations with no formal semantics attached to the individual diagrams. Therefore, it is not possible to apply rigorous automated analysis or to execute a UML model in order to test its behavior: short of writing code and performing exhaustive testing. We introduce a general framework for formalizing a subset of UML diagrams in terms of different formal languages based on a homomorphic mapping between meta models describing UML and the formal language. This framework enables the construction of a consistent set of rules for transforming UML models into specifications in the formal language. The resulting specifications derived from UML diagrams enable either execution through simulation or analysis through model checking, using existing tools. This paper describes the use of this framework for formalisms UML to model and analyze embedded systems. A prototype system for generating the formal specifications and results from an industrial case study are also described.