Software and System Modeling Based on a Unified Formal Semantics

TL;DR

This paper proposes a unified formal semantics framework to integrate various software and system modeling techniques, aiming to improve coherence and tool support in software engineering.

Contribution

It introduces a formal basis that unifies diverse modeling and documentation methods, addressing fragmentation in software development processes.

Findings

Identifies key issues in current modeling practices

Outlines solutions for a unified formal semantics framework

Enhances coherence and tool support for software modeling

Abstract

Modeling and documentation are two essential ingredients for the engineering discipline of software development. During the last twenty years a wide variety of description and modeling techniques as well as document formats has been proposed. However, often these are not integrated into a coherent methodology with well-defined dependencies between the models and documentations. This hampers focused software development as well as the provision of powerful tool-support. In this paper we present the main issues and outline solutions in the direction of a unified, formal basis for software and system modeling.