Extended Deadline - UML'2000 WORKSHOP DYNAMIC BEHAVIOUR IN UML MODELS

[reggio@disi.unige.it]

EXTENDED DEADLINE: new 25 August 2000

UML'2000 WORKSHOP
DYNAMIC  BEHAVIOUR  IN  UML MODELS: SEMANTIC QUESTIONS

York - UK - October 2/3, 2000

http://www.disi.unige.it/person/ReggioG/UMLWORKSHOP/CALLFORPAPER.html

WORKSHOP  CONTACT
     Gianna Reggio (DISI-Universita' di Genova, Italy)
     reggio@disi.unige.it

ORGANIZERS
     Gianna Reggio (DISI-Universita' di Genova, Italy)
     Alexander Knapp (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Munchen, Germany)
     Bernhard Rumpe (TU Munchen, Germany)
     Bran Selic (ObjecTime Ltd., Kanata, Canada)
     Roel Wieringa (University of Twente, The Netherlands)

DEADLINES  AND  IMPORTANT  DATES
     * Submission deadline: 25 August 2000  !!NEW!!
     * Notification of Acceptance: 28 August 2000
     * Workshop: 2 or 3 October 2000

CALL  FOR  PARTICIPATION

Although many years of practical experience went into the design of the
UML, the lack of precise semantics still stands in the way of effective
application.
The modelling of complex systems requires techniques that allow us to
manage complexity as well as techniques that allow early detection of
errors in behaviour models.
UML well supports the principle of separation of views that is an
effective means of controlling complexity.

However, UML does not support so well the formality and rigour needed to
early detect errors in requirements and design.
Developing a precise, complete, and understandable semantics for the UML
that enables practical, tool-supported and rigorous analysis of UML
models can enhance its applicability to the modelling of complex systems.
A formal analysis of the semantic foundations of the UML notations can
also lead to more precise and complete natural language descriptions of
the notations in the UML standard. In addition, the insights provided by
a well-defined UML semantics can help modelers choose appropriately
among a variety of modelling constructs.
These observations are particularly relevant when we consider the
dynamic behaviour of the UML models:
  - UML offers many different notations to represent dynamic behaviour,
    such as statechart diagrams, sequence diagrams, collaboration
    diagrams, and activity diagrams, and they are based on different
    paradigms/techniques.
  - dynamic behaviour is also modelled in other diagrams, not
    specifically intended for this; for example, in a class diagram we
    may have
    * invariants for active classes or for the whole model,
    * pre-post conditions on operations of active classes,
    * concurrency properties of operations,
    * signal reception specifications,
    * ........
  - an aspect of the dynamic behaviour of a part of a system may be
    described simultaneously in several diagrams of a UML model, so that
    there is the need of developing methods, techniques and tools to help
   to avoid to introduce inconsistency in a model.
  - most of the semantic variation points in the UML are related to
    dynamic behaviour (for example, the policy for handling the event
    queue in statecharts).
  - ........
The purpose of this workshop is to bring together researchers and
practitioners from academia and industry to report on their experiences
with developing precise semantics for the dynamic behaviour of UML
models.
This one-day workshop will be the first on the particular topic of the
semantics of the dynamic behaviour of the UML, but it ideally follows a
series of successful four workshops on strengthening the UML semantic
foundation organized at the OOPSLA and ECOOP conferences in the last two
years, where this particular topic raised many questions and lively
debate. Presentations and discussions at this workshop will focus on
identifying the challenges, recognizing limitations, and analyzing
proposed semantics for the dynamic aspects of UML.

Attendance at the workshop will be on invitation only.
Participants that would like to be invited are asked to write a position
paper on some aspect of the dynamic behaviour of UML models.
A nonexhaustive list of topics is
  - precise semantics of the "dynamic" diagrams, as statecharts, sequence,
    collaboration, and activity diagrams; and of the constraints over
    them;
  - precise semantics of UML models integrating the views presented by
    the different diagrams;
  - precise relationships among the different ways provided by UML to
    model some dynamic aspect of a system (for example equivalence
    between diagrams);
  - relationships between class diagrams and diagrams concerning the
    dynamic behaviour;
  - profiles covering dynamic aspects;
  - rigorous methods for modelling dynamic aspects of systems with UML
    exploiting proper ways to use the various diagrams;
  - motivations/proposals for UML extensions concerning the dynamic
    aspects (for example, extensions of OCL to allow to express many
    relevant constraints on the dynamic behaviour, as liveness);
  - translating one behaviour notation into another;
  - refinement and abstraction for behaviour models;
  - ..........

According to the UML'2000 registration policy all attendees at the
workshop will have to pay the workshop registration fee. A discounted
fee will be offered for those also attending the <<UML>> 2000
conference. For more informations regarding the UML'2000 Conference and
workshop registration please visit the conference web site at
  http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/uml2000/.