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Generating Formal Software Architecture Descriptions from Semi-Formal SysML-Based Models: A Model-Driven Approach

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Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2021 (ICCSA 2021)

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Abstract

The critical nature of many complex software-intensive systems requires formal architecture descriptions for supporting automated architectural analysis regarding correctness properties. Due to the challenges of adopting formal approaches, many architects have preferred using notations such as UML, SysML, and their derivatives to describe the structure and behavior of software architectures. However, these semi-formal notations have limitations regarding the sought support for architectural analysis. This paper presents an approach to bridge the rigor of formal architecture descriptions and the ease of use of SysML-based notations widely used elsewhere. The main concern is providing formal semantics to SysADL, a SysML-based language to describe software-intensive system architectures. The formal semantics is provided by \(\uppi \)-ADL, a formal architecture description language. A model-to-model transformation was defined and implemented to concretize the mapping between the elements of these languages and hence automatically generate formal architecture descriptions in \(\uppi \)-ADL from SysADL. This paper describes a proof-of-concept to illustrate the mapping between SysADL and \(\uppi \)-ADL and an exploratory study on the transformation performance.

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Correspondence to Camila Araújo .

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Araújo, C., Batista, T., Cavalcante, E., Oquendo, F. (2021). Generating Formal Software Architecture Descriptions from Semi-Formal SysML-Based Models: A Model-Driven Approach. In: Gervasi, O., et al. Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2021. ICCSA 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12951. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86970-0_28

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86970-0_28

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