Refining UML interactions with underspecification and nondeterminism

Abstract

STAIRS is an approach to the compositional development of UML interactions, such as sequence diagrams and interaction overview diagrams. An important aspect of STAIRS is the ability to distinguish between underspecification and inherent nondeterminism through the use of potential and mandatory alternatives. This paper investigates this distinction in more detail. Refinement notions explain when (and how) both kinds of nondeterminism may be reduced during the development process. In particular, in this paper we extend STAIRS with guards, which may be used to specify the choice between alternatives. Finally, we introduce the notion of an implementation and define what it means for an implementation to be correct with respect to a specification.