Verification of UML/OCL Class Diagrams Using Constraint Programming

In the MDD and MDA approaches, models become the primary artifacts of the development process. Therefore, assessment of the correctness of such models is a key issue to ensure the quality of the final application. In that sense, this paper presents an automatic method that uses the Constraint Programming paradigm to verify UML class diagrams extended with OCL constraints. In our approach, both class diagrams and OCL constraints are translated into a Constraint Satisfaction Problem. Then, compliance of the diagram with respect to several correctness properties such as weak and strong satisfiability or absence of constraint redundancies can be formally verified.