A scenario based notation for specifying temporal properties

Abstract

Temporal logics are commonly used for reasoning about concurrent systems. Model checkers and other finite-state verification techniques allow for automated checking of system model compliance to given temporal properties. These properties are typically specified as linear-time formulae in temporal logics. Unfortunately, the level of inherent sophistication required by these formalisms too often represents an impediment to move these techniques from "research theory" to "industry practice". The objective of this work is to facilitate the non trivial and error prone task of specifying, correctly and without expertise, temporal properties.In order to understand the basis of a simple but expressive formalism for specifying temporal properties we critically analyze commonly used in practice visual notations. Then we present a scenario-based visual language that, in our opinion, fixes the highlighted lacks of these notations. We propose an extended graphical notation of a subset of UML 2.0 Interaction Sequence Diagrams. A precise semantics of this new language, called Property Sequence Chart (PSC), is provided via translation, by means of an algorithm implemented as a plugin of our charmy tool, into Büchi automata. Expressiveness of PSC has been validated with respect to well known property specification patterns.