Possible Improvements in UML Behavior Diagrams

Although, Unified Modeling Language (UML) has become a de-facto standard for design and specification of object oriented systems but its structures being semi-formal in nature have various disadvantages. The UML diagrams lack with defining semantics of the functionality of a system to be developed. Automata theory and formal methods are proved powerful at requirement specification, modeling, design and test case generation. To address and realize the benefits of liking UML, automata and formal methods, our project on "formalization of UML diagrams" is in progress. This paper is continuation of the same project in which behavior diagrams namely use case, activity and state diagrams are selected for critical analysis and possible improvements. Advantages, disadvantages and limitations of the diagrams are addressed. Finally, a treatment is suggested to link UML diagrams with nondeterministic and parallel finite automata to enhance modeling power of UML for facilitating the software development procedures.