PROBE: From Requirements and Design to Proof Obligations for Aspect- Oriented Systems

† On leave from Computer Science Department, The Technion, Haifa, Israel. Abstract Aspect-oriented software development (AOSD) techniques support the systematic modularization and composition of crosscutting concerns, the so-called “aspects”. Though AOSD techniques have been proposed to handle crosscutting concerns at various stages during the software life cycle, there are gaps between the aspects at the requirements level, those at the design level, and those implemented at later development stages. It is not clear what proof obligations about an aspect-oriented implementation follow from the initial aspectual requirements, or from design elements given in UML. This validation problem is further compounded by the lack of traceability of aspectual requirements and their associated trade-offs through to subsequent design and implementation-level refinements. This paper presents PROBE, a framework for generating proof obligations for aspect-oriented systems from the initial aspectual requirements and associated trade-offs, as well as from designs of aspects. The abstract proof obligations are expressed in standard linear temporal logic. Key components of the framework include an extended ontology with parametric temporal formulas and functions, and extensive treatment of conflicts among requirements. The proof obligations generated from designs of aspects are integrated with those from the requirements stage. The resultant temporal logic assertions, grouped into specifications of aspect implementations, can then be instantiated in terms of the implementation and intended verification tool. The result provides input to formal methods tools such as model-checkers, or can be used in the specification and generation of test cases.