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Ambiguity and structural properties of basic sequence diagrams

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Abstract

Sequence Diagrams (SDs) are one of the most popular elements of the UML notation to model the dynamics of systems. However, the graphical representation of basic SDs suffers from an inherent ambiguity that has led to different definitions in UML 1.x and in UML 2.0. This ambiguity paves the way for the consideration of several semantics for basic SDs. The paper studies four of these semantics and shows to what extent their differences for a given SD (that is the amount of ambiguity of this diagram) comes from its structural properties (linearity, local control and local causality). The fulfilment of these properties can serve as a measure of the ambiguity of a SD, and thus the attention to be paid at its validation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRIT, 21 allée de Briennes, 31042, Toulouse Cedex, France

    Christophe Sibertin-Blanc & Omar Tahir

  2. LIUPPA, University of Pau, ave. de l’Université, 64012, Pau Cedex, France

    Nabil Hameurlain

  3. LIUPPA, Avenue de l’Université, BP 1155, 64013, Pau, France

    Nabil Hameurlain

Authors
  1. Christophe Sibertin-Blanc
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  2. Nabil Hameurlain
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  3. Omar Tahir
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Correspondence to Nabil Hameurlain.

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Sibertin-Blanc, C., Hameurlain, N. & Tahir, O. Ambiguity and structural properties of basic sequence diagrams. Innovations Syst Softw Eng 4, 275–284 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11334-008-0063-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11334-008-0063-2

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