Schulbildung

Studium

Berufliche Tätigkeiten

Sonstiges

Lehre

Im Studium

Als wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter

Auszeichnungen

Gregor Engels, Daniela Fisseler, Christian Soltenborn:   Improving Reusability of Dynamic Meta Modeling Specifications with Rule Overriding.  In R. DeLine, M. Minas, M. Erwig (eds.): Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC 2009), Corvallis, Oregon (USA). IEEE Computer Society (Piscataway, NJ (USA)), pp. 39-46 (2009). Best Paper of VL/HCC (2009) 
 

Forschungsgebiete

• Dynamic Meta Modeling
• Semantik visueller Modellierungssprachen
• Qualität von UML-Modellen
• Semantikerhaltende Modelltransformationen

Publikationen

Zeitschriftenbeiträge

Christian Soltenborn, Gregor Engels: Using Rule Overriding to Improve Reusability and Understandability of Dynamic Meta Modeling Specifications. In Journal of Visual Languages and Computing, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 233--250 (2011)
Show Bibtex | Show Abstract | DOI

@article{SE2010, author = {Christian Soltenborn, Gregor Engels}, title = {Using Rule Overriding to Improve Reusability and Understandability of Dynamic Meta Modeling Specifications}, journal = {Journal of Visual Languages and Computing}, year = {2011}, volume = {22}, number = {3}, pages = {233--250} }

Dynamic Meta Modeling (DMM) is a visual semantics specification technique targeted at languages based on a metamodel. A DMM specification consists of a runtime metamodel and operational rules which describe how instances of the runtime metamodel change over time. A known deficiency of the DMM approach is that it does not support the refinement of a DMM specification, e.g., in the case of defining the semantics for a refined and extended domain-specific language (DSL). Up to now, DMM specifications could only be reused by adding or removing DMM rules. In this paper, we enhance DMM such that DMM rules can override other DMM rules, similar to a method being overridden in a subclass, and we show how rule overriding can be realized with the graph transformation tool GROOVE. We argue that rule overriding does not only have positive impact on reusability, but also improves the intuitive understandability of DMM semantics specifications.

Gregor Engels, Stefan Sauer, Christian Soltenborn: Unternehmensweit verstehen – unternehmensweit entwickeln: Von der Modellierungssprache zur Softwareentwicklungsmethode. In Informatik-Spektrum, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 451--459 (2008)
Show Bibtex | Show Abstract | DOI

@article{ESS2008, author = {Gregor Engels, Stefan Sauer, Christian Soltenborn}, title = {Unternehmensweit verstehen – unternehmensweit entwickeln: Von der Modellierungssprache zur Softwareentwicklungsmethode}, journal = {Informatik-Spektrum}, year = {2008}, volume = {31}, number = {5}, pages = {451--459}, month = {October} }

Sollen wir UML 1.4, UML 2.0 oder eine ganz andere Modellierungssprache für unsere Softwareentwicklung einsetzen? Der folgende Beitrag zeigt, dass bei der Festlegung einer unternehmensweiten Entwicklungsmethode nicht die Frage nach der Modellierungssprache im Vordergrund stehen sollte. Viel entscheidender für den Erfolg von Softwareentwicklungsprojekten in einem Unternehmen ist ein einheitliches Verständnis der Entwicklungskonzepte und -artefakte sowie ihrer Beziehungen untereinander. Eine Einigung über ein unternehmensweites Domänenmodell der Softwareentwicklungskonzepte sollte deshalb vor der Auswahl von Modellierungssprachen, eines konkreten Vorgehensmodells und geeigneter Werkzeuge erfolgen.

Rezensierte Konferenzbeiträge

Markus Luckey, Christian Gerth, Christian Soltenborn, Gregor Engels: QUAASY - QUality Assurance of Adaptive SYstems. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Autonomic Computing (ICAC'11). ACM (2011)
Show Bibtex | Show Abstract | DOI

@inproceedings{quaasy_poster11, author = {Markus Luckey, Christian Gerth, Christian Soltenborn, Gregor Engels}, title = {QUAASY - QUality Assurance of Adaptive SYstems}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Autonomic Computing (ICAC'11)}, year = {2011}, month = {June}, publisher = {ACM} }

The emerging approach to tackle the increasing complexity of today's software systems is the use of self-adaptation techniques. Modeling and implementing adaptivity features is a burdensome and error-prone task that potentially results in erroneous system models. As a consequence, quality analysis and assurance must be considered early in the development of self-adaptive systems. We propose a quality assurance approach for self-adaptive systems in terms of an integrated modeling and analysis approach, which helps identifying errors in modeled self-adaptive systems early in the design process. We employ a modeling language for self-adaptive systems including adaptation rules and formally define their semantics. Given the language and its formal semantics, we formulate quality properties, such as fairness of the specified adaptation rule system. These quality properties are verified using a model checking approach.

Nils Bandener, Christian Soltenborn, Gregor Engels: Extending DMM Behavior Specifications for Visual Execution and Debugging. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Software Language Engineering (SLE 2010). Springer (Berlin/Heidelberg), LNCS, vol. 6563, pp. 357--376 (2011)
Show Bibtex | Show Abstract | DOI

@inproceedings{Soltenborn2010, author = {Nils Bandener, Christian Soltenborn, Gregor Engels}, title = {Extending DMM Behavior Specifications for Visual Execution and Debugging}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Software Language Engineering (SLE 2010)}, year = {2011}, volume = {6563}, series = {LNCS}, pages = {357--376}, address = {Berlin/Heidelberg}, publisher = {Springer} }

Dynamic Meta Modeling (DMM) is a visual semantics specification technique targeted at behavioral languages equipped with a metamodel defining the language's abstract syntax. Given a model and a DMM specifification, a transition system can be computed which represents the semantics of that model. It allows for the investigation of the model's behavior, e.g. for the sake of understanding the model's semantics or to verify that certain requirements are fufilled. However, due to a number of reasons such as tooling and the size of the resulting transition systems, the manual inspection of the resulting transition system is cumbersome. One solution would be a visualisation of the model's behavior using animated concrete syntax. In this paper, we show how we have enhanced DMM such that visual execution and debugging can be added to a language in a simple manner.

Mathias Hülsbusch, Barbara König, Arend Rensink, Maria Semenyak, Christian Soltenborn, Heike Wehrheim: Full Semantics Preservation in Model Transformation - A Comparison of Proof Techniques. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Integrated Formal Methods (IFM 2010). Springer (Berlin/Heidelberg), LNCS, vol. 6396, pp. 183--198 (2010)
Show Bibtex | Show Abstract | DOI

@inproceedings{HKRSSW2010, author = {Mathias Hülsbusch, Barbara König, Arend Rensink, Maria Semenyak, Christian Soltenborn, Heike Wehrheim}, title = {Full Semantics Preservation in Model Transformation - A Comparison of Proof Techniques}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Integrated Formal Methods (IFM 2010)}, year = {2010}, volume = {6396}, series = {LNCS}, pages = {183--198}, address = {Berlin/Heidelberg}, publisher = {Springer} }

Model transformation is a prime technique in modern, model-driven software design. One of the most challenging issues is to show that the semantics of the models is not affected by the transformation. So far, there is hardly any research into this issue, in particular in those cases where the source and target languages are different. In this paper, we are using two different state-of-the-art proof techniques (explicit bisimulation construction versus borrowed contexts) to show bisimilarity preservation of a given model transformation between two simple (self-defined) languages, both of which are equipped with a graph transformation-based operational semantics. The contrast between these proof techniques is interesting because they are based on different model transformation strategies: triple graph grammars versus in situ transformation. We proceed to compare the proofs and discuss scalability to a more realistic setting.

Gregor Engels, Daniela Fisseler, Christian Soltenborn: Improving Reusability of Dynamic Meta Modeling Specifications with Rule Overriding. In Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC 2009), Corvallis, Oregon (USA). IEEE Computer Society (Piscataway, NJ (USA)), pp. 39--46 (2009) Best Paper of VL/HCC 2009.
Show Bibtex | Show Abstract | DOI

@inproceedings{Soltenborn2009b, author = {Gregor Engels, Daniela Fisseler, Christian Soltenborn}, title = {Improving Reusability of Dynamic Meta Modeling Specifications with Rule Overriding}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC 2009), Corvallis, Oregon (USA)}, year = {2009}, pages = {39--46}, address = {Piscataway, NJ (USA)}, publisher = {IEEE Computer Society}, note = {Best Paper of VL/HCC 2009.} }

Dynamic Meta Modeling (DMM) is a visual semantics specification technique targeted at languages equipped with a metamodel. In DMM, the metamodel of a language is mapped into a runtime metamodel able to express runtime states of instances of that language. In addition, graph transformation rules are defined which describe how these runtime states change in time. Given an instance of the runtime metamodel and a set of rules typed over that metamodel, a transition system can be computed which represents the semantics of the model instance under investigation. To be easily understandable by language engineers, DMM resembles a couple of well-known object-oriented concepts. Part of this is the fact that a DMM rule has many similarities to a method in an object-oriented language. In this paper, we enhance DMM such that DMM rules can "override" other DMM rules, similar to a method being overridden in a subclass. We argue that this does not only have positive impact on reusability of DMM specifications, but also improves the intuitive understandability of DMM rules.

Christian Soltenborn, Gregor Engels: Towards Test-Driven Semantics Specification. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS 2009), Denver, Colorado (USA). Springer (Berlin/Heidelberg), LNCS, vol. 5795, pp. 378--392 (2009)
Show Bibtex | Show Abstract | DOI

@inproceedings{Soltenborn2009a, author = {Christian Soltenborn, Gregor Engels}, title = {Towards Test-Driven Semantics Specification}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS 2009), Denver, Colorado (USA)}, year = {2009}, volume = {5795}, series = {LNCS}, pages = {378--392}, address = {Berlin/Heidelberg}, publisher = {Springer} }

Behavioral models are getting more and more important within the software development cycle. To get the most use out of them, their behavior should be defined formally. As a result, many approaches exist which aim at specifying formal semantics for behavioral languages (e.g., Dynamic Meta Modeling (DMM), Semantic Anchoring). Most of these approaches give rise to a formal semantics which can e.g. be used to check the quality of a particular language instance, for instance using model checking techniques. However, if the semantics specification itself contains errors, it is more or less useless, since one cannot rely on the analysis results. Therefore, the language engineer must make sure that the semantics he develops is of the highest quality possible. To help the language engineer to achieve that goal, we propose a test-driven semantics specification process: the semantics of the language under consideration is first informally demonstrated using example models, which will then be used as test cases during the actual semantics specification process. In this paper, we present this approach using the already mentioned specification language DMM.

Gregor Engels, Anneke Kleppe, Arend Rensink, Maria Semenyak, Christian Soltenborn, Heike Wehrheim: From UML Activities to TAAL - Towards Behaviour-Preserving Model Transformations. In Proceedings of the 4th European Conference on Model Driven Architecture - Foundations and Applications (ECMDA-FA 2008), Berlin (Germany). Springer (Berlin/Heidelberg), LNCS, vol. 5095, pp. 95--109 (2008)
Show Bibtex | Show Abstract | DOI

@inproceedings{Engels08-2, author = {Gregor Engels, Anneke Kleppe, Arend Rensink, Maria Semenyak, Christian Soltenborn, Heike Wehrheim}, title = {From UML Activities to TAAL - Towards Behaviour-Preserving Model Transformations}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 4th European Conference on Model Driven Architecture - Foundations and Applications (ECMDA-FA 2008), Berlin (Germany)}, year = {2008}, volume = {5095}, series = {LNCS}, pages = {95--109}, address = {Berlin/Heidelberg}, month = {July}, publisher = {Springer} }

Model transformations support a model-driven design by providing an automatic translation of abstract models into more concrete ones, and eventually program code. Crucial to a successful application of model transformations is their correctness, in the sense that the meaning (semantics) of the models is preserved. This is especially important if the models not only describe the structure but also the intended behaviour of the systems. Reasoning about and showing correctness is, however, often impossible as the source and target models typically lack a precise definition of their semantics. In this paper, we take a first step towards provably correct behavioural model transformations. In particular, we develop transformations from UML Activities (which are visual models) to programs in TAAL, which is a textual Java-like programming language. Both languages come equipped with formal behavioural semantics, which, moreover, have the same semantic domain. This sets the stage for showing correctness, which in this case comes down to showing that the behaviour of every (well-formed) UML Activity coincides with that of the corresponding TAAL program, in a well-defined sense.

Gregor Engels, Baris Güldali, Christian Soltenborn, Heike Wehrheim: Assuring Consistency of Business Process Models and Web Services using Visual Contracts. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Applications of Graph Transformation with Industrial Relevance (AGTIVE 2007), Kassel (Germany). Springer (Berlin/Heidelberg), LNCS, vol. 5088, pp. 17--31 (2008)
Show Bibtex | Show Abstract | DOI

@inproceedings{Engels08, author = {Gregor Engels, Baris Güldali, Christian Soltenborn, Heike Wehrheim}, title = {Assuring Consistency of Business Process Models and Web Services using Visual Contracts}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Applications of Graph Transformation with Industrial Relevance (AGTIVE 2007), Kassel (Germany)}, year = {2008}, volume = {5088}, series = {LNCS}, pages = {17--31}, address = {Berlin/Heidelberg}, month = {October}, publisher = {Springer} }

Business process models describe workflows by a set of actions together with their ordering. When implementing business processes within a service-oriented architecture, these actions are mapped to existing IT (web) services, which are then to be executed in the order specified by the business process. However, the execution of a web service can require certain preconditions to be fulfilled. These might not hold at the time of execution specified in the business process model: it can be inconsistent with the web service specification. In this paper we propose a technique for checking consistency of process models with web service specifications. To this end, both are equipped with a formal semantics (in terms of graph transformations). We show how to use an existing model checker for graph transformation systems to carry out the consistency check.

Gregor Engels, Christian Soltenborn, Heike Wehrheim: Analysis of UML Activities Using Dynamic Meta Modeling. In Proceedings of the conference on Formal Methods for Open Object-based Distributed Systems (FMOODS 2006), Oslo (Norway). Springer (Berlin/Heidelberg), LNCS, vol. 4468, pp. 76--90 (2007)
Show Bibtex | Show Abstract | DOI

@inproceedings{Engels2007a, author = {Gregor Engels, Christian Soltenborn, Heike Wehrheim}, title = {Analysis of UML Activities Using Dynamic Meta Modeling}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the conference on Formal Methods for Open Object-based Distributed Systems (FMOODS 2006), Oslo (Norway)}, year = {2007}, volume = {4468}, series = {LNCS}, pages = {76--90}, address = {Berlin/Heidelberg}, month = {June}, publisher = {Springer} }

Dynamic Meta Modeling (DMM) is a universal approach to defining semantics for languages syntactically grounded on meta models. DMM has been designed with the aim of getting highly understandable yet precise semantic models which in particular allow for a formal analysis. In this paper, we exemplify this by showing how DMM can be used to give a semantics to and define an associated analysis technique for UML Activities.

Kiran Mahajan, Christoph Laroque, Wilhelm Dangelmaier, Christian Soltenborn, Michael Kortenjan, Daniel Kuntze: d³FACT insight: A motion planning algorithm for material flow simulations in virtual environments. In Proceedings of the conference on Simulation and Visualization (SimViS 2005), Magedeburg (Germany). SCS European Publishing House (Erlangen), vol. 1, pp. 115--126 (2005)
Show Bibtex | Show Abstract

@inproceedings{Mahajan2005, author = {Kiran Mahajan, Christoph Laroque, Wilhelm Dangelmaier, Christian Soltenborn, Michael Kortenjan, Daniel Kuntze}, title = {d³FACT insight: A motion planning algorithm for material flow simulations in virtual environments}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the conference on Simulation and Visualization (SimViS 2005), Magedeburg (Germany)}, year = {2005}, volume = {1}, pages = {115--126}, address = {Erlangen}, publisher = {SCS European Publishing House} }

Visualization has always played an important role in the analysis of material flow simulations. These days, commercial software is available to visualize such systems. Using these software, the user has to model and parameterize the simulation and finally view the simulation in a virtual environment. After analyzing the system, typically he might wish to carry out changes in the layout, parameters, etc of the simulation model which also includes determining new motion paths for objects like forklifts, automated guided vehicles, etc. This paper presents a motion planning algorithm which automatically determines the paths for such objects depending on the new model layout without colliding with other objects of the virtual factory. First the motivation is presented in a case study form to emphasize drawbacks of existing software. Then the algorithm is described on the highest level followed by details of the methodology. The paper concludes with future research and conclusions.

Rezensierte Workshopbeiträge

Svetlana Arifulina, Christian Soltenborn, Gregor Engels: Coverage Criteria for Testing DMM Specifications. In Proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Graph Transformation and Visual Modeling Techniques (GT-VMT 2012), Tallinn (Estonia). European Association of Software Science and Technology (EASST), Electronic Communications of the EASST, vol. 47 (2012)
Show Bibtex | Show Abstract | URL

@inproceedings{Arifulina2012a, author = {Svetlana Arifulina, Christian Soltenborn, Gregor Engels}, title = {Coverage Criteria for Testing DMM Specifications}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Graph Transformation and Visual Modeling Techniques (GT-VMT 2012), Tallinn (Estonia)}, year = {2012}, volume = {47}, series = {Electronic Communications of the EASST}, publisher = {European Association of Software Science and Technology (EASST)} }

Behavioral modeling languages are most useful if their behavior is specified formally such that it can e.g. be analyzed and executed automatically. Obviously, the quality of such behavior specifications is crucial. The rule-based semantics specification technique Dynamic Meta Modeling (DMM) honors this by using the approach of Test-driven Semantics Specification (TDSS), which makes sure that the specification at hand at least describes the correct behavior for a suite of test models. However, in its current state TDSS does not provide any means to measure the quality of such a test suite. In this paper, we describe how we have applied the idea of test coverage to TDSS. Similar to common approaches of defining test coverage criteria, we describe a data structure called invocation graph containing possible orders of applications of DMM rules. Then we define different coverage criteria based on that data structure, taking the rule applications caused by the test suite's models into account. Our implementation of the described approach gives the language engineer using DMM a means to reason about the quality of the language's test suite, and also provides hints on how to improve that quality by adding dedicated test models to the test suite.

Gregor Engels, Christian Soltenborn: Test-driven Language Derivation with Graph Transformation-based Dynamic Meta Modeling. In Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Graph and Model Transformation (GraMoT 2010), Berlin (Germany). European Association of Software Science and Technology, Electronic Communications of the EASST, vol. 30, pp. 240--257 (2010)
Show Bibtex | Show Abstract

@inproceedings{EngelsSoltenborn2010a, author = {Gregor Engels, Christian Soltenborn}, title = {Test-driven Language Derivation with Graph Transformation-based Dynamic Meta Modeling}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Graph and Model Transformation (GraMoT 2010), Berlin (Germany)}, year = {2010}, volume = {30}, series = {Electronic Communications of the EASST}, pages = {240--257}, publisher = {European Association of Software Science and Technology} }

Deriving a new language L_B from an already existing one L_A is a typical task in domain-specific language engineering. Here, besides adjusting L_A's syntax, the language engineer has to modify the semantics of L_A to derive L_B's semantics. Particularly, in case of behavioral modeling languages, this is a difficult and error-prone task, as changing the behavior of language elements or adding behavior for new elements might have undesired side effects. Therefore, we propose a test-driven language derivation process. In a first step, the language engineer creates example models containing the changed or newly added elements in different contexts. For each of these models, the language engineer also precisely describes the expected behavior. In a second step, each example model and its description of behavior is transformed into an executable test case. Finally, these test cases are used when deriving the actual semantics of L_B - at any time, the language engineer can run the tests to verify whether the changes he performed on L_A's semantics indeed produce the desired behavior. In this paper, we illustrate the approach using our graph transformation-based semantics specification technique Dynamic Meta Modeling. This is once more an example where the graph transformation approach shows its strengths and appropriateness to support software engineering tasks as, e.g., model transformations, software specifications, or tool development.

Christian Soltenborn, Gregor Engels: Towards Generalizing Visual Process Pattern. In Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Visual Formalisms for Patterns (VFfP 2009), Corvallis, OR (USA). European Association of Software Science and Technology, Electronic Communications of the EASST, vol. 25 (2009)
Show Bibtex | Show Abstract

@inproceedings{Soltenborn2009c, author = {Christian Soltenborn, Gregor Engels}, title = {Towards Generalizing Visual Process Pattern}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Visual Formalisms for Patterns (VFfP 2009), Corvallis, OR (USA)}, year = {2009}, volume = {25}, series = {Electronic Communications of the EASST}, publisher = {European Association of Software Science and Technology} }

Visual Process Pattern (VPP) is a visual language to describe constraints on the behavior of UML Activities. They have been developed for the sake of formulating and verifying requirements on business process models (with Activities being one possible description language). In the VPP approach, a visual pattern is translated into an LTL formula, which can then be verified against a transition system describing the behavior of the Activity under consideration. In this paper, we aim at generalizing VPP. We show how to formulate patterns more generally, using either concrete or abstract syntax of the behavioral model under consideration. Additionally, we describe how these more general patterns can be verified against a model’s behavior.

Christian Soltenborn, Gregor Engels: Analysis of UML Activities with Dynamic Meta Modeling Techniques. In Symposium "A Formal Semantics for UML" (satellite event of the MoDELS conference 2006), Genova (Italy). Springer (Berlin/Heidelberg), LNCS, vol. 4364, pp. 329--330 (2007)
Show Bibtex | Show Abstract | DOI

@inproceedings{Soltenborn2006, author = {Christian Soltenborn, Gregor Engels}, title = {Analysis of UML Activities with Dynamic Meta Modeling Techniques}, booktitle = {Symposium "A Formal Semantics for UML" (satellite event of the MoDELS conference 2006), Genova (Italy)}, year = {2007}, volume = {4364}, series = {LNCS}, pages = {329--330}, address = {Berlin/Heidelberg}, publisher = {Springer} }

Based on a semantics of UML Activities specified with the Dynamic Meta Modeling approach, we analyze the dynamic semantics of Activities at modeling time.

Technische Berichte

Mathias Hülsbusch, Barbara König, Arend Rensink, Maria Semenyak, Christian Soltenborn, Heike Wehrheim: Full Semantics Preservation in Model Transformation - A Comparison of Proof Techniques. techreportCentre for Telematics and Information Technology of the University of Twente (Enschede, The Netherlands) (2010)
Show Bibtex | Show Abstract

@techreport{HKRSSW2010TR, author = {Mathias Hülsbusch, Barbara König, Arend Rensink, Maria Semenyak, Christian Soltenborn, Heike Wehrheim}, title = {Full Semantics Preservation in Model Transformation - A Comparison of Proof Techniques}, institution = {Centre for Telematics and Information Technology of the University of Twente}, year = {2010}, type = {techreport}, address = {Enschede, The Netherlands} }

Model transformation is a prime technique in modern, model-driven software design. One of the most challenging issues is to show that the semantics of the models is not affected by the transformation. So far, there is hardly any research into this issue, in particular in those cases where the source and target languages are different. In this paper, we are using two different state-of-the-art proof techniques (explicit bisimulation construction versus borrowed contexts) to show bisimilarity preservation of a given model transformation between two simple (self-defined) languages, both of which are equipped with a graph transformation-based operational semantics. The contrast between these proof techniques is interesting because they are based on different model transformation strategies: triple graph grammars versus in situ transformation. We proceed to compare the proofs and discuss scalability to a more realistic setting.

Dissertationen

Christian Soltenborn: Quality Assurance with Dynamic Meta Modeling. Type: Phd Thesis (2013)
Show Bibtex | Show Abstract | DOI

@phdthesis{dissSoltenborn, author = {Christian Soltenborn}, title = {Quality Assurance with Dynamic Meta Modeling}, school = {undefined}, year = {2013} }

Dynamic Meta Modeling (DMM) is a semantics specification technique targeted at MOF-based modeling languages, where a language's behavior is defined by means of graphical operational rules which change runtime models. The DMM approach has first been suggested by Engels et al. in 2000; Hausmann has then defined the DMM language on a conceptual level within his PhD thesis in 2006. Consequently, the next step was to bring the existing DMM concepts alive, and then to apply them to different modeling languages, making use of the lessons learned to improve the DMM concepts as well as the DMM tooling. The result of this process is the DMM++ method, which is presented within this thesis. Our contributions are three-fold: First, and according to our experiences with the DMM language, we have introduced new concepts such as refinement by means of rule overriding, and we have strengthened existing concepts such as the dealing with universally quantified structures or attributes. Second, we have developed a test-driven process for semantics specification: A set of test models is created, and their expected behavior is fixed. Then, the DMM rules are created incrementally, finally resulting in a DMM ruleset realizing at least the expected behavior of the test models. Additionally, we have defined a set of coverage criteria for DMM rulesets which allow to measure the quality of a set of test models. Third, we have shown how functional as well as non-functional requirements can be formulated against models and their DMM specifications. The former is achieved by providing a visual language for formulating temporal logic properties, which are then verified with model checking techniques, and by allowing for visual debugging of models failing a requirement. For the latter, the modeler can add performance information to models and analyze their performance properties, e.g. average throughput.

Diplomarbeiten

Christian Soltenborn: Analysis of UML Workflow diagrams with Dynamic Meta Modeling techniques. Type: Diploma Thesis, diplomathesis (2006)
Show Bibtex | Show Abstract

@masterthesis{Soltenborn2006a, author = {Christian Soltenborn}, title = {Analysis of UML Workflow diagrams with Dynamic Meta Modeling techniques}, school = {undefined}, year = {2006}, type = {diplomathesis}, month = {June} }

High-quality workflows are critical for the success of companies. In this thesis, the concept of soundness is transferred from the Petri nets into the world of UML Activities. The soundness property is formalized based on a semantics specification of UML Activities which has been developed using Dynamic Meta Modeling.

Bachelorthesis | Titel: A Bidirectional Transformation between EMF Models and Typed Graphs

Aufgabenbereich: Dynamic Meta Modeling
Status: Abgeschlossen
Bearbeiter: Thomas Rheker
 

Beschreibung:

Vorkenntnisse:

Kontakt: Christian Soltenborn
Anhang: Bachelor_Thesis_Thomas_Rheker.pdf

Diplom-/Masterarbeit | Titel: A Formal, Graph-Based Semantics for UML Activities

Aufgabenbereich: Dynamic Meta Modeling
Status: Abgeschlossen
Bearbeiter: Markus Hornkamp
 

Beschreibung:
Das Verhalten von Aktivitäten ist in der UML-Spezifikation nur natürlichsprachlich beschrieben (wie das aller anderen Verhalten beschreibenden Sprachen auch). Dieses Manko lässt sich mit Hilfe des von der AG Engels entwickelten Dynamic Meta Modeling (DMM, siehe auch hier) beheben. Es soll also eine DMM-Spezifikation des Verhaltens von Activitäten entwickelt werden, und zwar auf Basis der UML-Spezifikation. Aufgabe: Analysieren des Verhaltens von Aktivitäten anhand der UML-Spezifikation sowie bereits vorhandener Semantikspezifikationsansätze. Implementieren einer DMM-Spezifikation für Aktivitäten mittels der vorhandenen Werkzeugumgebung. Dokumentieren der Ergebnisse.

Vorkenntnisse:

• Solide UML-Kenntnisse. Vorteilhaft sind Einblicke in Metamodellierung sowie Erfahrungen mit Graphtransformationen.

Kontakt: Christian Soltenborn
Anhang: Diploma_Thesis_Markus_Hornkamp.pdf

Bachelorthesis | Titel: A Visual Editor for Semantics Specifications Using the Eclipse Graphical Modeling Framework

Aufgabenbereich: Dynamic Meta Modeling
Status: Abgeschlossen
Bearbeiter: Malte Röhs
 

Beschreibung:
Dynamic Meta Modeling (DMM, siehe auch hier) ist eine von unserer Arbeitsgruppe entwickelte Technik zur formalen Spezifikation des Verhaltens von visuellen Sprachen (z.B. UML Aktivitäten). Auf Basis einer solchen DMM-Spezifikation (z.B. von UML Aktivitätendiagrammen) sowie eines Modells (z.B. eines Aktivitätendiagramms) lässt sich ein Transitionssystem berechnen, das das Verhalten des Modells beschreibt. Dieses Transitionssystem kann dann analysiert werden. Die Erstellung von DMM-Spezifikationen erfolgt zurzeit noch mit einem generischen Tool (EMF Tree Editor) und ist deshalb nicht sehr komfortabel. Im Rahmen dieser Bachelorarbeit soll deshalb ein GMF-basierter visueller Editor für DMM-Spezifikationen entwickelt werden. Aufgabe: Konzeption und Implementierung eines visuellen Editors für DMM-Spezifikationen auf Basis des Eclipse-Frameworks GMF. Dokumentieren der Ergebnis

Vorkenntnisse:

• Solide Java- und UML-Kenntnisse. Vorteilhaft sind Kenntnisse in den Eclipse-Frameworks EMF und GMF.

Kontakt: Christian Soltenborn
Anhang: Bachelor_Thesis_Malte_Röhs.pdf

Bachelorthesis | Titel: Automatic Transformation of Graph-Based DMM Rules into GROOVE Rules

Aufgabenbereich: Dynamic Meta Modeling
Status: Abgeschlossen
Bearbeiter: Boris Stobbe
 

Beschreibung:

Vorkenntnisse:

Kontakt: Christian Soltenborn
Anhang: Noch kein Anhang

Diplom-/Masterarbeit | Titel: Coverage Criteria for Testing DMM Specifications

Aufgabenbereich: Dynamic Meta Modeling
Status: Abgeschlossen
Bearbeiter: Svetlana Arifulina
 

Beschreibung:
Dynamic Meta Modeling (DMM) is a semantics specification technique for visual behavioral modeling languages. A DMM specification basically consists of a number of graph transformation rules which realize a model's behavior. To improve a quality level of a DMM specification, the approach of test-driven semantics specification (TDSS) can be used: Before creating the DMM rules, a set of example models is created, and their expected behavior is formalized. During creation of the rules, it is continously tested whether the semantics specification indeed produces that behavior. However, one would want to measure the quality of the tests itself. One common approach to measure the quality of tests in software engineering is the computation of the coverage of the System under Test (SUT): During execution of the tests, the SUT is monitored, and elements of the SUT which have been executed are identified (e.g., statements of the program code). The coverage is then computed as the ratio between all elements the SUT consists of and the covered elements. This thesis will investigate whether the concept of test coverage in software engineering can be transferred to the approach of TDSS.

Vorkenntnisse:

• Good knowledge of Java and Eclipse/EMF. Solid mathematical background.

Kontakt: Christian Soltenborn
Anhang: Master_Thesis_Svetlana_Arifulina.pdf

Diplom-/Masterarbeit | Titel: Eine formale, graphbasierte Semantik für UML Interactions

Aufgabenbereich: Dynamic Meta Modeling
Status: Abgeschlossen
Bearbeiter: Jens Schäfer
 

Beschreibung:
Das Verhalten von Sequenzdiagrammen ist in der UML-Spezifikation nur natürlichsprachlich beschrieben (wie das aller anderen Verhalten beschreibenden Sprachen auch). Dieses Manko lässt sich mit Hilfe des von der AG Engels entwickelten Dynamic Meta Modeling (DMM, siehe auch hier) beheben. Es soll also eine DMM-Spezifikation des Verhaltens von Sequenzdiagrammen entwickelt werden, und zwar auf Basis der UML-Spezifikation. Diese soll mit der sich zurzeit in Entwicklung befindlichen Semantik für Aktivitätendiagramme sowie der für Statecharts (siehe entsprechende Abschlussarbeit) integriert sein. Aufgabe: Analysieren des Verhaltens von Sequenzdiagrammen anhand der UML-Spezifikation sowie bereits vorhandener Semantikspezifikationsansätze. Implementieren einer DMM-Spezifikation für Sequenzdiagramme mittels der vorhandenen Werkzeugumgebung. Dokumentieren der Ergebnisse. Vorkenntnisse: Solide UML-Kenntnisse. Vorteilhaft sind Einblicke in Metamodellierung sowie Erfahrungen mit Graphtransformationen.

Vorkenntnisse:

• Solide UML-Kenntnisse. Vorteilhaft sind Einblicke in Metamodellierung sowie Erfahrungen mit Graphtransformationen.

Kontakt: Christian Soltenborn
Anhang: Diploma_Thesis_Jens_Schäfer.pdf

Diplom-/Masterarbeit | Titel: Eine formale, graphbasierte Semantik für UML Statemachines

Aufgabenbereich: Dynamic Meta Modeling
Status: Abgeschlossen
Bearbeiter: Viktor Nesterow
 

Beschreibung:
Das Verhalten von Statecharts ist in der UML-Spezifikation nur natürlichsprachlich beschrieben (wie das aller anderen Verhalten beschreibenden Sprachen auch). Dieses Manko lässt sich mit Hilfe des von der AG Engels entwickelten Dynamic Meta Modeling (DMM, siehe auch hier) beheben. Es soll also eine DMM-Spezifikation des Verhaltens von Statecharts entwickelt werden, und zwar auf Basis der UML-Spezifikation. Diese soll mit der sich zurzeit in Entwicklung befindlichen Semantik für Aktivitätendiagramme sowie der für Sequenzdiagramme (siehe entsprechende Abschlussarbeit) integriert sein. Aufgabe: Analysieren des Verhaltens von Statecharts anhand der UML-Spezifikation sowie bereits vorhandener Semantikspezifikationsansätze. Implementieren einer DMM-Spezifikation für Statecharts mittels der vorhandenen Werkzeugumgebung. Dokumentieren der Ergebnisse.

Vorkenntnisse:

• Solide UML-Kenntnisse. Vorteilhaft sind Einblicke in Metamodellierung sowie Erfahrungen mit Graphtransformationen.

Kontakt: Christian Soltenborn
Anhang: Diploma_Thesis_Viktor_Nesterow.pdf

Bachelorarbeit | Titel: Enhancing the Dynamic Meta Modeling Formalism and its Eclipse-based Tool Support with Attributes

Aufgabenbereich: Dynamic Meta Modeling
Status: Abgeschlossen
Bearbeiter: Eduard Bauer
 

Beschreibung:

Vorkenntnisse:

Kontakt: Christian Soltenborn
Anhang: Bachelor_Thesis_Eduard_Bauer.pdf

Diplom-/Masterarbeit | Titel: Improving the Inheritance Concept of Dynamic Meta Modeling

Aufgabenbereich: Dynamic Meta Modeling
Status: Abgeschlossen
Bearbeiter: Daniela Fisseler
 

Beschreibung:

Vorkenntnisse:

Kontakt: Christian Soltenborn
Anhang: Diplom_Thesis_Daniela_Fisseler.pdf

Bachelorthesis | Titel: Optimierte Transformation von Ecore-Instanzen in Graphen

Aufgabenbereich: Dynamic Meta Modeling
Status: Abgeschlossen
Bearbeiter: Frederik Hahne
 

Beschreibung:
Dynamic Meta Modeling (DMM, siehe auch hier) ist eine von unserer Arbeitsgruppe entwickelte Technik zur formalen Spezifikation des Verhaltens von visuellen Sprachen (z.B. UML Aktivitäten). DMM-Spezifikationen werden in einem visuellen Editor entwickelt und dann zur Ausführung automtisch in die Eingabesprache des Werkzeugs GROOVE (GRaphs for Object-Oriented VErification) übersetzt. Um ein mit einer DMM-Spezifikation versehenes Modell ausführen zu können, muss dieses deshalb zunächst ebenfalls in die Eingabesprache von GROOVE übersetzt werden. Die existierende Transformation ist relativ primitiv implementiert: So enthält der resultierende Groove-Graph z.B. alle im Modell enthaltenen Informationen, auch wenn diese in der Semantik-Spezifikation gar nicht benötigt werden. Weiter enthält jeder Knoten des resultierenden Graphen alle ihn betreffenden Typinformation (diese könnten auch in einem Typgraphen gespeichert und von den entsprechenden Knoten referenziert werden). Die Groove-Graphen sind deshalb deutlich umfangreicher als nötig. Dies wirkt nicht nur negativ auf die Verarbeitung großer Modelle aus (Performanz), sondern trägt auch nicht zur leichten Verständlichkeit der Graphen bei. Im Rahmen der ausgeschriebenen Bachelorarbeit soll deshalb die vorhandene Transformation analysiert und angepasst werden. Ziel ist eine möglichst kompakte Repräsentation des Ausgangsmodells auf der GROOVE-Seite. Aufgabe: Untersuchen der vorhandenen Transformationen, Identifizieren der zur Ausführung einer DMM-Spezifikation nötigen Informationen. Anpassen der Transformation wie oben beschrieben unter Verwendung vorhandener Testfälle. Dokumentieren der Ergebnisse.

Vorkenntnisse:

• Solide Kenntnisse in Java. Vorteilhaft sind Kenntnisse in EMF und XML.

Kontakt: Christian Soltenborn
Anhang: noch kein Anhang

Diplom-/Masterarbeit | Titel: Qualitätssicherung im Business Process Modeling durch automatische Ableitung visueller Kontrakte aus heterogenen UML-Modellen

Aufgabenbereich: Visual Contracts
Status: Abgeschlossen
Bearbeiter: Michael Mlynarski
 

Beschreibung:

Vorkenntnisse:

• Solide Kenntnisse in Java. Vorteilhaft sind Kenntnisse in EMF und XML.

Kontakt: Christian Soltenborn
Anhang: Master_Thesis_Michael_Mlynarski.pdf

Diplom-/Masterarbeit | Titel: Specification Language for Binary Parser Construction in the Context of Smart Card Protocol Monitoring

Aufgabenbereich: Domain Specific Languages
Status: Abgeschlossen
Bearbeiter: Jürgen Wall
 

Beschreibung:

Vorkenntnisse:

Kontakt: Christian Soltenborn
Anhang: Diploma_Thesis_Jürgen_Wall.pdf

Diplom-/Masterarbeit | Titel: Visual Interpreter and Debugger for Dynamic Models Based on the Eclipse Platform

Aufgabenbereich: Dynamic Meta Modeling
Status: Abgeschlossen
Bearbeiter: Nils Bandener
 

Beschreibung:
Dynamic Meta Modeling (DMM, siehe auch hier) ist eine von unserer Arbeitsgruppe entwickelte Technik zur formalen Spezifikation des Verhaltens von visuellen Sprachen (z.B. UML Aktivitäten). Auf Basis einer solchen DMM-Spezifikation (z.B. von UML Aktivitätendiagrammen) sowie eines Modells (z.B. einer Aktivität) lässt sich ein Transitionssystem berechnen, das das Verhalten des Modells beschreibt. Dieses Transitionssystem kann dann z.B. mit einem Modelchecker analysiert werden. Intuitiver wäre es allerdings, das Verhalten des zu analysierenden Modells visuell darzustellen: Um festzustellen, dass ein Token seine Position geändert hat, muss man dann nicht mehr die Zustände des Transitionssystems analysieren, sondern kann die Positionsveränderung des (z.B. als scharzem Kreis dargestellten) Tokens direkt in der visuellen Darstellung des Modells sehen. Diese Visualisierung soll Aufgabe der vorgestellen Diplom/Masterarbeit sein. Aufgabe: Untersuchen und Klassifizieren der für die beschriebene Visualisierung notwendigen Informationen. Implementierung der Visualisierungskomponente und Einbinden in die bereits vorhandene Werkzeugumgebung. Dokumentation der Ergebnisse.

Vorkenntnisse:

• Solide Kenntnisse in Java und UML. Vorteilhaft sind Kenntnisse in den Eclipse-Frameworks EMF und GMF sowie in Graphtransformationen.

Kontakt: Christian Soltenborn
Anhang: Diploma_Thesis_Nils_Bandener.pdf

Diplom-/Masterarbeit | Titel: Werkzeuggestützte Erstellung eines Laufzeit-Metamodells

Aufgabenbereich: Dynamic Meta Modeling
Status: Abgeschlossen
Bearbeiter: Hendrik Schreiber
 

Beschreibung:
Dynamic Meta Modeling (DMM) ist eine von unserer Arbeitsgruppe entwickelte Technik zur formalen Spezifikation des Verhaltens von visuellen Sprachen (z.B. UML Aktivitäten). Der erste Schritt bei der Erstellung einer DMM-Spezifikation besteht in der Erstellung eines sogenannten Laufzeit-Metamodells. Dabei handelt es sich um eine erweiterte Version des Metamodells der eigentlichen Sprache. Die hinzugefügten Elemente erlauben es, Laufzeitzustände des entsprechenden Modells zu beschreiben. So basiert laut Spezifikation der UML die Semantik von Aktivitätendiagrammen auf dem Fluss von Tokens, das Konzept des Tokens kommt im UML-Metamodell jedoch nicht vor. Im Laufzeit-Metamodell wird dieses Konzept hinzugefügt, wodurch z.B. ausdrückbar wird, welche Aktionen in einem gegebenen Zustand ausgeführt werden. In einem zweiten Schritt wird ein Mapping zwischen dem originalen Metamodell und dem Laufzeit-Metamodell definiert. Dieses dient dann dazu, gegebene Modelle “in einen ausführbaren Zustand zu übersetzen”. Im oben angeführten Beispiel bestände die Übersetzung im Wesentlichen darin, allen InitialNodes des Aktivitätendiagramms ein Token hinzuzufügen. Es wäre wünschenswert, ein Werkzeug zu haben, dass die beschriebenen Schritte unterstützt. Idealerweise lässt dieses Werkzeug die visuelle Definition des Laufzeit-Metamodells sowie des Mappings zu. Zudem sollte das Mapping ausführbar sein, also zur automatischen Übersetzung von Instanzen des originalen Metamodells in Instanzen des Laufzeit-Metamodells dienen. Aufgabe: Untersuchen der Anforderungen an ein Mapping wie oben beschrieben. Entwickeln einer (möglichst modellgetriebenen) Werkzeugunterstützung zur Erstellung von Laufzeit-Metamodell und Mapping sowie zur “Anwendung” eines Mappings. Dokumentieren der Ergebnisse.

Vorkenntnisse:

• Solide UML- und Java-Kenntnisse. Vorteilhaft sind Kenntnisse in den Eclipse-Frameworks EMF und GMF.

Kontakt: Christian Soltenborn
Anhang: noch kein Anhang