OCLR: a More Expressive, Pattern-based Temporal Extension of OCL

Modern enterprise information systems often require to specify their
functional and non-functional (e.g., Quality of Service) requirements
using expressions that contain temporal constraints. Specification
approaches based on temporal logics demand a certain knowledge of
mathematical logic, which is difficult to find among practitioners; moreover,
tool support for temporal logics is limited. On the other hand, a
standard language such as the Object Constraint Language (OCL), which
benefits from the availability of several industrial-strength tools,
does not support temporal expressions.

In this paper we propose OCLR, an extension of OCL with support for
temporal constraints based on well-known property specification
patterns. With respect to previous extensions, we add support for
referring to a specific occurrence of an event as well as for
indicating a time distance between events and/or scope boundaries. The
proposed extension defines a new syntax, very close to natural
language, paving the way for a rapid adoption by practitioners. We
show the application of the language in a case study in the domain of
eGovernment, developed in collaboration with a public service partner.