Semantic rules of UML specification

Abstract

Modeling of a system is an essential process in software development lifecycle (SDLC). It will produce a system artifact called a system model. In object– oriented based software development, a system model can be developed by using Unified Modeling Language (UML). UML is a modeling language for specifying, constructing, and documenting the artifacts of systems. It consists of 13 diagrams that can be used to describe the different views of a system. Each diagram has its own syntax and semantics. The syntax or abstract syntax is the notations for each element of the diagrams, whereas the semantics is the meaning of the notations. The huge complexity of UML specification that content multi diagrams and notations, and lack of formal semantics decrease the quality of system models produced. It will lead to wrong interpretations and inconsistency between models. Therefore, a precise meaning of UML diagrams is very important in order to have a common understanding of their meaning. Formalization of the semantics of UML specification is important in order to provide the consistency of the system models. This paper provides an overview of the semantics rules of UML specification and suggests an approach to formalize these semantics rules.