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of this paper are: (i) to show that readings techniques
can aid the identification of defects of SysML
models; (ii) to present the family of reading
techniques that was created to support the inspection
of SysML and MATLAB/Simulink models
generated by SYSMOD process; and (iii) to present
the feasibility study that was carried out to explore
the feasibility of using such type of technique.
This paper is organized as follows: in Section 2
related works are commented; Section 3 presents the
family of reading techniques in the context of the
SYSMOD process; Section 4 describes the
feasibility study carried out for evaluating one of the
techniques; and Section 5 presents the conclusion e
future work.
2 RELATED WORK
Before starting the definition of the reading
techniques addressed in this paper, we conducted a
Systematic Mapping (SM) (Petersen et al., 2008)
aiming to identify the main studies related to V&V
activities in the context of embedded systems —
specifically in the modeling level. Systematic
Mappings are used, to detect literature evidence
about a topic to be explored while Systematic
Literature Reviews (SLR) (Kitchenham, 2004) are
used to identify, evaluate and interpret all relevant
research on a particular topic, aiming to establish the
state of the art about it. Frequently, SMs precede
SLRs.
In this SM a total of 411 studies were gathered
and during the screening phase — i.e., the selection
of relevant studies based on the inclusion and
exclusion criteria, just 80 of them were accepted.
After that, during the keywording phase — i.e., the
definition of the classification scheme, some facets
were defined. Among them, the three facets showed
in Figure 1, highlighted a gap regarding inspection
activities, particularly for detecting defects in
SysML models and Simulink models. Besides, only
49 studies, from the total of 80 studies, satisfy the
categories grouped in these facets. The other 31
studies address V&V activities for embedded system
but are not related to these three facets specifically.
Figure 1 maps the 49 studies according to these
facets. Observe from these 49 studies that 24 are
related to facet (1) and facet (2); and 25 are related
to facet (3) and facet (2). Hence, for example, there
is one study that addresses both the categories:
Reading Techniques and V&V Process; there are 8
studies that address Test Case Generation and V&V
techniques. Also, it is important to notice that the
same study can be included in more than one
relationship.
Aiming to exemplify the initiatives that are being
conducted, three studies will be commented. The
first study refers to the static activity of inspection.
Denger and Ciolkowski (2003) propose a Reading
technique for inspecting Statecharts models inspired
on Perspective Based Reading (PBR) (Basili et al.,
1996). Hence, the authors propose a taxonomy that
establishes quality criteria that should be present in
Statechart specifications of embedded systems.
Another study refers to the use of certification
standards for validating embedded system models.
In this case the certification standard DO-178C is
suggested as a V&V support activity in the context
of the GENESYS architecture. Although the authors
emphasize the importance of using UML/SysML in
this architecture, they do not address the use of
reading techniques. However, inspection has been
pointed out as an effective way for detecting defects
along a process and some reading techniques have
been proposed. As example we can cite the
following techniques: (i) PBR – Perspective Based
Reading (Basili et al., 1996), which is used to
inspect requirement documents; (ii) UBR – Use
Based Reading, which is used to detect anomalies in
user interface (Zhang et al., 1998); and (iii) OORTs
– Object Oriented Reading Techniques (Travassos et
al., 2000), which are used for inspecting UML
models at project level; and (iv) OORTs/ProDES
(Marucci et al., 2002), which are used for inspecting
UML models that are constructed according to the
ProDES process. Therefore, V&V activities have
been widely investigated by researches from
different points of view. However, no work was
identified that explored inspection activities for
SysML models, which are widely used for modeling
embedded systems.
3 A FAMILY OF READING
TECHNIQUES FOR SYSML
MODELS
SysML/System Modelling (SysML/SYSMOD)
(Weilkiens, 2008) is a top-down process of software
development which has been highlighted in the
community of embedded systems.
Considering the importance of the application of
verification and validation activities for quality in
software development and also that the SYSMOD
process uses SysML diagrams, we define a family of
reading techniques to be used with the SYSMOD
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