A Modeling Strategy for the Verification of Context-Oriented Chatbot Conversational Flows via Model Checking

• Published in: J.UCS (Annual print and CD-ROM archive ed.) Vol. 29; no. 7; pp. 805 - 835
• Main Authors: Silva, Geovana Ramos Sousa, Rodrigues, Genaína Nunes, Canedo, Edna Dias
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol Pensoft Publishers 01.01.2023; Graz University of Technology
• Subjects: Analysis; Chatbots; Computer programming; Context; conversational desi; formal verification; Model testing; Modelling; Prototyping; Verification
• ISSN: 0948-695X; 0948-6968
• DOI: 10.3897/jucs.91311

Verification of chatbot conversational flows is paramount to capturing and understanding chatbot behavior and predicting problems that would cause the entire flow to be restructured from scratch. The literature on chatbot testing is scarce, and the few works that approach this subject do not focus on verifying the communication sequences in tandem with the functional requirements of the conversational flow itself. However, covering all possible conversational flows of context-oriented chatbots through testing is not feasible in practice given the many ramifications that should be covered by test cases. Alternatively, model checking provides a model-based verification in a mathematically precise and unambiguous manner. Moreover, it can anticipate design flaws early in the software design phase that could lead to incompleteness, ambiguities, and inconsistencies. We postulate that finding design flaws in chatbot conversational flows via model checking early in the design phase may overcome quite a few verification gaps that are not feasible via current testing techniques for context-oriented chatbot conversational flows. Therefore, in this work, we propose a modeling strategy to design and verify chatbot conversational flows via the Uppaal model checking tool. Our strategy is materialized in the form of templates and a mapping of chatbot elements into Uppaal elements. To evaluate this strategy, we invited a few chatbot developers with different levels of expertise. The feedback from the participants revealed that the strategy is a great ally in the phases of conversational prototyping and design, as well as helping to refine requirements and revealing branching logic that can be reused in the implementation phase.