Structuring Activity Diagrams

SysML covers a large modeling scope for Systems Engineers. Behavior is adequately described by state machine, sequence, and activity diagrams (completed by parametric con- straints). The standard describes these diagrams at the level of elementary graphical objects. Unfortunately, most modeling tools remain at that conceptual level, i.e. graphical objects which are assembled together. In this paper, elementary behaviors are a priori defined and their equivalent described as behavioral construct patterns. The author claims that modeling tools should propose these behavioral constructs in an ”insert” policy to let the Systems Engineers remain at the appropriate behavioral modeling level.