Semantic Navigation Strategies for Scenario-Based Programming

The scenario-based approach to specification and programming uses powerful extensions of sequence diagrams, such as LSCs (live sequence charts), to model system behavior. Previous work in this area presents interesting challenges related to the scalability of the approach and to better tool support for analysis, execution, and comprehension. Here we suggest new semantic-rich ways of viewing sequence diagrams and LSCs for better comprehension of both a single large chart and a full multi-chart specification, in a variety of software engineering tasks. Our method uses weighted messages to create a semantic order that enables semantic zooming and scrolling of different parts of a chart, providing visual hints about context.