Inconsistency detection methods for statecharts and sequence diagrams: a systematic literature review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55972/spectrum.v26i1.427Keywords:
mbse, model consistency, uml, statechart, sequence diagram, systematic literature reviewAbstract
During model-based systems engineering or software engineering activities, diagrams representing use cases (sequence diagrams) and diagrams representing object behaviors (state machine diagrams or statecharts) can conflict with each other in what is called an inconsistency. Detecting these inconsistencies is crucial to check if a given specification is realizable through the behavior that was conceived to meet it. This paper provides a systematic literature review of inconsistency detection methods for UML state machine diagrams and sequence diagrams. The selection process is aided by an open-source machine-learning tool, and resulted in the qualitative synthesis of 27 works. The included publications offer methods to tackle the detection of horizontal-semantic behavior inconsistencies.
References
C. Haskins, “A historical perspective of mbse with a view to the future,” vol. 1, 2011.
G. SPANOUDAKIS and A. ZISMAN, “Inconsistency management in software engineering: Survey and open research issues,” pp. 329–380, 12 2001.
M. Usman, A. Nadeem, T. hoon Kim, and E. suk Cho, “A survey of consistency checking techniques for uml models.” IEEE, 12 2008, pp. 57–62.
I. J. S.. Software and systems engineering, [ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010:2011] Systems and software engineering — Architecture de-scription, 1st ed., ser. International Standard. ISO; IEC; IEEE, 2011, vol. ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010:2011.
J.-L. Voirin, Model-based system and architecture engineering with the arcadia method. London, Kidlington, Oxford: ISTE Press ; Elsevier, 2018, oCLC: 1013462528.
D. Harel, “Statecharts: a visual formalism for complex systems,” Science of Computer Programming, vol. 8, pp. 231–274, 6 1987.
F. J. Lucas, F. Molina, and A. Toval, “A systematic review of uml model consistency management,” Information and Software Technology, vol. 51, pp. 1631–1645, 12 2009.
F. ul Muram, H. Tran, and U. Zdun, “Systematic review of software behavioral model consistency checking,” ACM Computing Surveys, vol. 50, pp. 1–39, 3 2018.
D. Allaki, M. Dahchour, and A. En-nouaary, “Managing inconsistencies in uml models: A systematic literature review,” Journal of Software, vol. 12, pp. 454–471, 6 2017.
M. J. Page et al., “The prisma 2020 statement: An updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews,” 3 2021.
R. van de Schoot et al., “An open source machine learning framework for efficient and transparent systematic reviews,” Nature Machine Intelligence, vol. 3, pp. 125–133, 2 2021.
F. van Ommen et al., “Interventions for work participation of unemployed or work-disabled cancer survivors: a systematic review,” Acta Oncologica, pp. 1–12, 4 2023.
C. Wohlin, “Guidelines for snowballing in systematic literature studies and a replication in software engineering.” ACM, 5 2014, pp. 1–10.
B. Litvak, S. Tyszberowicz, and A. Yehudai, “Behavioral consistency validation of uml diagrams.” IEEE, 2003, pp. 118–125.
T. Yokogawa, S. Amasaki, K. Okazaki, Y. Sato, K. Arimoto, and H. Miyazaki, “Consistency verification of uml diagrams based on process bisimulation.” IEEE, 12 2013, pp. 126–127.
S. Phuklang, T. Yokogawa, P. Leelaprute, and K. Arimoto, “Tool support for consistency verification of uml diagrams,” pp. 606–609, 2017.
A. Matsumoto, T. Yokogawa, S. Amasaki, H. Aman, and K. Arimoto, “Consistency verification of uml sequence diagrams modeling wireless sensor networks.” IEEE, 7 2019, pp. 458–461.
H. MIYAZAKI, T. YOKOGAWA, S. AMASAKI, K. ASADA, and Y. SATO, “Synthesis and refinement check of sequence diagrams,” IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems, vol. E95.D, pp. 2193–2201, 2012.
T. Yokogawa, A. Matsumoto, S. Amasaki, H. Aman, and K. Arimoto, “Synthesis and consistency verification of uml sequence diagrams with hierarchical structure,” Information Engineering Express, vol. 6, p. 529, 2020.
Y. Shinkawa, “Inter-model consistency between uml state machine and sequence models.” vol. 2. SciTePress - Science and and Technology Publications, 01 2011, pp. 135–142.
——, “Evaluating behavioral correctness of a set of uml models,” in International Conference on Software Paradigm Trends, vol. 2. SCITEPRESS, 2012, pp. 247–254.
H. Tan, S. Yao, and J. Xu, “Behavioral consistency analysis of the uml parallel structures,” pp. 287–292, 2011.
K. Diethers and M. Huhn, “Vooduu: Verification of object-oriented designs using uppaal,” pp. 139–143, 2004.
X. Zhao, Q. Long, and Z. Qiu, “Model checking dynamic uml consistency,” pp. 440–459, 2006.
H. Wang, T. Feng, J. Zhang, and K. Zhang, “Consistency check between behaviour models.” IEEE, pp. 470–473.
V. S. W. Lam and J. Padget, “Consistency checking of sequence diagrams and statechart diagrams using the π-calculus,” pp. 347–365, 2005.
L. Gongzheng and Z. Guangquan, “An approach to check the consistency between the uml 2.0 dynamic diagrams.” IEEE, 8 2010, pp. 1913–1917.
A. Gherbi and F. Khendek, “Consistency of uml/spt models,” pp. 203–224.
Y. Hammal, “A formal methodology for semantics and time consistency checking of uml dynamic diagrams,” pp. 78–85, 2009.
——, “A formal semantics of uml statecharts by means of timed petrinets,” pp. 38–52, 2005.
S. Yao and S. Shatz, “Consistency checking of uml dynamic models based on petri net techniques.” IEEE, 11 2006, pp. 289–297.
Y. Kawakami, T. Yokogawa, H. Miyazaki, S. Amasaki, Y. Sato, and M. Hayase, “Symbolic model checking of interactions in sequence diagrams with combined fragments by smv,” vol, vol. 4, pp. 1692–1695, 2010.
S. HARADA, T. YOKOGAWA, H. MIYAZAKI, S. Yoichiro, and M. HAYASE, “A tool support for verifying consistency between uml diagrams by smv,” in ITC-CSCC: International Technical Conference on Circuits Systems, Computers and Communications, 2009, pp. 897–900.
P. Kaufmann, M. Kronegger, A. Pfandler, M. Seidl, and M. Widl, “Intra- and interdiagram consistency checking of behavioral multiview models,” Computer Languages, Systems and Structures, vol. 44, pp. 72–88, 12 2015.
——, “A sat-based debugging tool for state machines and sequence diagrams,” pp. 21–40, 2014.
Y. Xie, D. Du, J. Liu, and Z. Ding, “Towards the verification of services collaboration.” IEEE, 2009, pp. 428–433.
X. Li, J. Hu, L. Bu, J. Zhao, and G. Zheng, “Consistency checking of concurrent models for scenario-based specifications,” pp. 298–312, 2005.
L. Xuandong, W. Linzhang, Q. Xiaokang, L. Bin, Y. Jiesong, Z. Jian-hua, and Z. Guoliang, “Runtime verification of java programs for scenario-based specifications,” pp. 94–105, 2006.
J. Choi, E. Jee, and D.-H. Bae, “Timing consistency checking for uml/marte behavioral models,” Software Quality Journal, vol. 24, pp. 835–876, 9 2016.
R. V. D. Straeten, V. Jonckers, and T. Mens, “A formal approach to model refactoring and model refinement,” Software and Systems Modeling, vol. 6, pp. 139–162, 6 2007.
S. W. Haga, W.-M. Ma, and W. S. Chao, “Inconsistency checking of uml sequence diagrams and state machines using the structure-behavior coalescence method.” IEEE, 10 2022, pp. 1–6.
——, “Formalizing uml 2.0 state machines using a structure-behavior coalescence method.” IEEE, 10 2022, pp. 174–179.
A. Knapp and T. Mossakowski, “Uml interactions meet state machines - An institutional approach,” in 7th Conference on Algebra and Coalgebra in Computer Science (CALCO 2017). Schloss Dagstuhl-Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik, 2017.
M. Mithun and S. Jayaraman, “Comparison of sequence diagram from execution against design-time state specification.” IEEE, 9 2017, pp. 1387–1392.
C. Schwarzl and B. Peischl, “Static- and dynamic consistency analysis of uml state chart models,” pp. 151–165, 2010.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Matheus Cogo, Carline Muenchen, Christopher Cerqueira, Emilia Villani
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
