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"An "executable" UML model is one with a behavioral specification detailed enough that it can effectively be "run" as a program. This can be extremely valuable in order to test and validate the model, independently of the one or more implementation platforms to which the system being modeled will ultimately be deployed. Or, in some cases, the model itself can actually be run as the production implementation, given an appropriate execution environment. There have been model execution tools and environments for years, even before UML. However, each tool defined its own semantics for model execution, often including a proprietary action language, and models developed in one tool could not be interchanged with or interoperate with models developed in another tool. A previous post described Stephen Mellor's quest of more than a decade to change this through OMG standards for precise UML model execution semantics and a UML action language. In 2008, this led to the adoption of the Foundational UML (fUML) specification, providing the first precise operational and base semantics for a subset of UML encompassing most object-oriented and activity modeling. The fUML specification still did not provide any new concrete surface syntax, however, tying the precise semantics solely to the existing abstract syntax model of UML. This meant that, in order to fully specify a detailed behavior in a UML model - say the effect behavior of a transition on a state machine or the method of an operation of a class - one still had to draw a very detailed, graphical activity diagram. "

Modeling is supposed to be one of the most important activities in any software development process. At least this is the general understanding within the software engineering research community. However, in the day-to-day practice, modeling is usually regarded as, basically, a waste of time.

" A forum to dicuss about UML, MDA, MDD and all kinds of topics related to software modeling and model-driven engineering"