Abstract

Formal specifications have been a focus of software engineering research for many years and have been applied in a wide variety of settings. Their industrial use is still limited but has been steadily growing. After recalling the essence, role, usage, and pitfalls of formal specification, the paper reviews the main specification paradigms to date and discuss their evaluation criteria. It then provides a brief assessment of the current strengths and weaknesses of today's formal specification technology. This provides a basis for formulating a number of requirements for formal specification to become a core software engineering activity in the future.

Citations

3118	Communicating Sequential Processes - Hoare - 1985
2026	Model Checking - Clarke, Grumberg, et al. - 2000
1962	Statecharts: A visual formalism for complex systems - Harel - 1987
1412	The Temporal Logic of Reactive and Concurrent Systems - Manna, Pnueli - 1992
1219	An axiomatic basis for computer programming - Hoare - 1969
1085	Automatic verification of finite-state concurrent systems using temporal logic specifications - Clarke, Emerson, et al. - 1986
999	The temporal logic of programs - Pnueli - 1977
765	The temporal logic of actions - Lamport
647	The B Book - Assigning Programs to Meanings - Abrial - 1996
514	Conjoining specifications - Abadi, Lamport - 1995
504	Assigning meanings to programs - FLOYD - 1967
467	Dynamically discovering likely program invariants to support program evolution - Ernst, Cockrell, et al. - 2001
464	Symbolic model checking: An approach to the state explosion problem - Mcmillan - 1992
458	Programming from Specifications - Morgan - 1994
439	The Science of Programming - Gries - 1981
379	Statemate: A Working Environment for the Development of Complex Reactive Systems - Harel, Lachover, et al. - 1990
363	Guarded commands, nondeterminacy and formal derivation of programs - Dijkstra - 1975
296	Formal Verification for Fault-tolerant Architectures: Prolegomena to the Design of PVS - Owre, Rushby, et al. - 1995
293	editors: Larch: Languages and Tools for Formal Speci cation - Guttag, Horning - 1993
272	A.Finkelstein, “Expressing the relationships between multiple views in requirements specification - Nuseibeh, Kramer - 1993
269	Representing and using nonfunctional requirements: a process-oriented approach - Mylopoulos, Chung, et al. - 1992
258	Patterns in property specifications for finitestate verification - Dwyer, Avrunin, et al. - 1999
251	Specification matching of software components - Zaremski, Wing - 1997
220	Safety analysis of timing properties in real-time systems - Jahanian, AK - 1986
220	A speci er's introduction to formal methods - Wing - 1990
202	Requirements Specifications for ProcessControl Systems - Leveson, Heimdahl, et al. - 1994
186	Sometimes" and "Not Never" revisited: On branching versus linear time - EMERSON, HALPERN - 1983
167	Specifying software requirements for complex systems: New techniques and their applications - Heninger - 1980
144	M.: Four dark corners of requirements engineering - Zave, Jackson - 1997
129	The ASTOOT approach to testing object-oriented programs - Doong, Frankl - 1994
128	State-based model checking of event-driven system requirements - Atlee, Gannon - 1993
118	E.: ”From Object-Oriented to Goal-Oriented Requirements Analysis - Mylopoulos, Chung, et al. - 1999
117	Conjunction as composition - Zave, Jackson - 1993
112	Handling Obstacles in Goal-Oriented Requirements Engineering - Lamsweerde, Letier - 2000
111	Formal Refinement Patterns for Goal-Driven Requirements Elaboration - Darimont, Lamsweerde - 1996
110	Functional documentation for computer systems - Parnas, Madey - 1995
109	Managing conflicts in goal-driven requirements engineering 24(11 - Lamsweerde, Darimont, et al. - 1998
109	A technique for software module specification with examples - Parnas - 1972
103	Introduction to HOL - Gordon, Melham - 1993
99	Software testing based on formal specifications: A theory and a tool - Bernot, Gaudel, et al. - 1990
98	Completeness and Consistency in Hierarchical StateBased Requirements - Heimdahl, Leveson - 1996
96	Specification-based test oracles for reactive systems - Richardson, Aha, et al. - 1992
95	An International Survey of Industrial Applications of Formal Methods - Craigen, Gerhart, et al. - 1993
95	On the Characterization of Law and Computer Systems: the Normative Systems Perspective - JONES, SERGOT - 1994
90	Specification and verification of concurrent systems - Queille, Sifakis - 1982
85	Powerful techniques for the automatic generation of invariants - BENSALEM, LAKHNECH, et al. - 1996
84	On the inevitable intertwining of specification and implementation - Swartout, Balzer - 1982
83	Specifying Message Passing and Time-Critical Systems with Temporal Logic - Koymans - 1989
82	A tutorial introduction to PVS - Crow, Owre, et al. - 1995
80	On Formalism in Specifications - Meyer - 1985