Developing Executable UML Components Based on fUML and Alf

Abstract

Model-driven architecture frameworks provide an approach for specifying systems independently of a particular platform and for transforming such system models for a particular platform, but development processes based on MDA are not widely used today because they are in general heavy-weight processes: in most situations they cannot deliver (incrementally) partial implementations to be executed immediately. Executable UML means an execution semantics for a subset of actions sufficient for computational completeness. This chapter uses Alf as the fUML-based action language to describe the operations for iComponent: the proposed solution for a platform-independent component model for dynamic execution environments. Moreover, a UML profile for modeling components is defined and applied, following agile principles, to the development of service-oriented components for dynamic execution environments. The intended use of the proposed approach is enterprise systems.