A Petri net based methodology to integrate qualitative and quantitative analysis

An innovative net-based methodology to integrate qualitative and quantitative analysis of distributed software systems is outlined, and an on-going prototype implementation of a related graphic-oriented tool kit is sketched. The proposed method combines qualitative analysis, monitoring and testing as well as quantitative analysis on the basis of a net-based intermediate representation of the distributed software system under consideration. All transformations (from the distributed software system into a first Petri net model, and between the different kinds of net models) can be done formally, and therefore automated to a high degree. The evaluation of quantitative properties is based on so-called object nets which are obtained by a property-preserving structural compression and quantitative expansion of the qualitative model. Hereby, the frequency and delay attributes necessary to generate quantitative models are provided by the monitoring and testing component.