From UML Sequence Diagrams and StateCharts to analysable Petri Net models

In this paper we study the use of Sequence Diagrams and Statecharts of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) for the validation and the performance evaluation of systems. We assume that the system is specified as a set of Statecharts and that Sequence Diagrams are used to represent "executions of interest". UML lacks a formal semantics and hence it is not possible to apply, directly, mathematical techniques on UML models for system validation. To reach this goal we propose an automatic translation of Statecharts and Sequence Diagrams into Generalized Stochastic Petri Nets, and a composition of the resulting net models suitable for reaching a given analysis goal. The translation into Petri nets is based on the abstract syntax of the UML Collaborations and of the State Machines packages (from which Sequence Diagrams and Statecharts are derived) and the construction of the complete model heavily uses compositionality.