A general model-based slicing framework

Slicing is used to reduce the size of programs by removing those statements that do not contribute to the values of specified variables at a given program location. Slicing aids program understanding, debugging and verification. Slicing could be a useful technique to address problems arising from the size and complexity of industrial scale models; however there is no precise definition that can be used to specify a model slice. Model slices are achieved using model transformations, and since models are usually instances of multiple heterogeneous meta-models, model slicing must involve the composition of multiple transformations. This paper proposes a framework that can be used to define both program and model slicing. The framework is used to construct slices of a simple model written in a UML-like language