State charts are a popular representation technique for the conceptual modeling of the dynamics of a universe of discourse. However, designers are not supported in their work with dynamic models as they are for working with static models. We present a meta-model and a formalization of the semantics of a state chart language. Important results are the definition of the equivalence of dynamic models and a sound and complete axiomatization of the equivalence. Based on this we define a set of basic schema transformations which do not change the semantics of a model. These schema transformations can be used to successively transform dynamic models to achieve design goals or to prepare dynamic models for implementation.

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