Formalizing and validating behavioral models through the event calculus

Accurate gathering of requirements is a major concern during conceptual modelling. Such accurateness can only be achieved through major involvement of users, who should check whether the system's specification conforms with their expectations. This task can be facilitated both by intuitive conc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInformation systems (Oxford) Vol. 23; no. 3; pp. 179 - 196
Main Authors Diaz, Oscar, Paton, Norman W., Iturrioz, Jon
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Ltd 01.05.1998
Subjects
Behavioural modelling
Conceptual Modelling
Event Calculus
Software
Specification
Use Cases
Use Cases
Conceptual Modelling
Event Calculus
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Summary:Accurate gathering of requirements is a major concern during conceptual modelling. Such accurateness can only be achieved through major involvement of users, who should check whether the system's specification conforms with their expectations. This task can be facilitated both by intuitive conceptual constructs and by executable models that allow interaction with the user to explain the behavior of the system in accordance with its specification. This work proposes the notions of stimuli and business policies as intuitive behavioral constructs, and the use of the event calculus as an appropriate formalism for building executable specifications for behavioral models. The approach is borne out by an early implementation that allows the user to question why and how a given state is reached, where the answer is given in terms of the specifications, i.e. stimuli and policies, being applied. The utilization of use-cases as a first guideline for validating the model is also addressed.
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content type line 23
ISSN:0306-4379
1873-6076
DOI:10.1016/S0306-4379(98)00008-8