Event
Model-Based Systems Engineering Colloquium: Ed Seidewitz, "UML: Once More with Meaning"
Monday, April 15, 2013
11:00 a.m.
1146 A.V. Williams Building
Kimberly Edwards
kedwards@umd.edu
Model-Based Systems Engineering Colloquium
UML: Once More with Meaning
Ed Seidewitz
CTO, Americas, Ivar Jacobson International
| video | slides |
Host
John Baras
Talk 11:00 a.m., 1146 AV Williams
Roundtable 2:00 p.m., 2168 A.V. Williams
Abstract
The Unified Modeling Language (UML) has arguably succeeded in becoming the most commonly used modeling notation for software development. But modeling in the software community seems largely to mean simply drawing pictures, either to represent the problem domain or to blueprint a solution, without a precise enough meaning to fully specify the functionality of the system being developed. As a result, the UML standard, up to and including the latest formal version (UML 2.4.1), does not define the semantics of UML models at all precisely.
However, UML is also the basis for the System Engineering Modeling Language (SysML), and the system engineering community has traditionally defined models that are much more precise, allowing for simulation and analysis of systems involving complex combinations of software, hardware and physical processes. And some within the software community also see the need for a similar level of precision in models, allowing them to be executable in their own right. As a result, there has been in a great deal of work in recent years toward the standardization of the formal semantics of UML models the meaning behind the pictures: the Foundational UML (fUML) specification adopted in 2008; the Action Language for fUML (Alf), adopted in 2010; the UML 2.5 specification, currently in finalization (which includes a semantics conformance point for the first time); and work in progress on the Precise Semantics of UML Composite Structures.
This talk will review the state of this work and the implications for software and system engineering practice of bringing real meaning to UML.
Biography
Ed Seidewitz has 25 years of professional experience with the modeling, architecture and development of systems spanning diverse domains including aerospace, finance, acquisition and health care. In 2009, his 2003 paper "What Models Mean" was named an IEEE Software magazine 25th Anniversary Top Pick. Mr. Seidewitz has been active with the Object Management Group (OMG) for over 10 years, including involvement in every UML 2 Revision Task Force, as well as the Service Oriented Architecture Modeling Language (SoaML) and System Engineering Modeling Language (SysML) specifications. He was primary author of the Foundational Subset for Executable UML Models (fUML) and Action Language for Foundational UML (Alf) specifications. He is currently chair of the fUML 1.2 and Alf 1.1 Revision Task Forces, a member of the UML 2.5 Finalization Task Force, a leader of the Model Interchange Working Group and a member of the Information Flow Modeling Language and Precise Semantics of UML Composite Structures submission teams.
