Improving system reliability via rigorous software modeling: the UML case

Within Object Orientation (OO), the UML (Unified Modeling Language) is the standard language adopted by the Object Management Group to analyze and design information systems. However, UML has been criticized since its appearance due to the ambiguity and the lack of a truly formal definition of its semantics. This situation hinders the rigorous statement of properties related to the models constructed using this language, something which is crucial in the aerospace industry, given the high level of reliability that these systems require. With this in mind, a proposal to formalize a set of components described by UML class diagrams, using the algebraic specifications theory, is presented. Within this formal framework, specifications of software concerning aerospace systems constructed by UML class diagrams can be transformed into equivalent formal representations. Thus, the diagram can be mathematically verified and manipulated by using its equivalent formal representation. The formal model obtained has been described in an executable formal specification language called Maude.