A Reusable Modular Toolchain for Automated Dependability Evaluation

Model-transformation techniques have increasingly gained attention in the design and evaluation of high-integrity systems, with the purpose to provide (semi-)automatic tools for non-functional analysis. Analysis models are automatically derived from an architectural description of the system in a UML-like language. One of the main challenges is designing tools which can be reused: the modeling language, the analysis tools, and possibly the analysis method itself are going to evolve over time (e.g., due to different domains, new software versions, updates to standards). In this paper we describe the design and implementation of the toolchain for state-based dependability analysis developed within the CHESS project. The toolchain, which also provides back-annotation facilities, has been designed to be adapted to different modeling languages and analysis tools. The tool has been implemented as a plugin for the Eclipse platform, and it is publicly available on the CHESS website.