Exemplary and complete object interaction descriptions

摘要

Due to their graphical and intuitive syntax Message Sequence Charts (MSC) [(IT94) ITU-T. Z. 120--Message Sequence Chart (MSC). ITU-T, Geneva, 1994; (IT96) ITU--T. Z.120--Message Sequence Chart (MSC). ITU-T, Geneva, 1996] are an excellent description technique to capture interaction sequences among comPonents. MSCs are used in a variety of modeling techniques and development phases. Examples of their wide--spread applicability are communication patterns in software architectures, as well as message flow protocols between business corporations. In this paper, we present a variant of message sequence charts called Extended Event Traces (EETs). We provide the graphical and the textual notation, discuss the methodological use of EETs to describe behavior of object-oriented business information systems, and sketch their semantics. Special emphasis is put on the different implications of using EETs for exemplary and complete interaction descriptions. The possibility to describe interactions between single objects as well as composite objects with EETs makes them particularly suitable to describe the behavior of large systems.