INTER-MODEL CONSISTENCY BETWEEN UML STATE MACHINE AND SEQUENCE MODELS

UML state machine diagram and sequence diagram represent a system or software from contrastive two viewpoints, namely part and whole. If these diagrams depict the same system, they must be consistent with each other. However, UML does not provide us with an appropriate way to evaluate the consistency between the models drawn by these different diagrams. This paper reveals the interrelationships between state machine and sequence diagrams based on the ordering of method invocations, which determine the behavior of them. Focusing on these relationships, two criteria are introduced to evaluate the consistency. The evaluation is performed using Coloured Petri Nets (CPN) so that both diagrams are expressed and compared in the same form, with the same syntax and semantics.