Technology Transfer Issues for Formal Methods of Software Specification

Accurate and complete requirements specifications are crucial for the design and implementation of high-quality software. Unfortunately, the articulation and verification of software system requirements remains one of the most difficult and error-prone tasks in the software development lifecycle. The use of formal methods, based on mathematical logic and discrete mathematics, holds promise for improving the reliability of requirements articulation and modeling. However, formal modeling and reasoning about requirements has not typically been a part of the software analyst’s education and training, and because the learning curve for the use of these methods is nontrivial, adoption of formal methods has proceeded slowly. As a consequence, technology transfer is a significant issue in the use of formal methods. In this paper, several efforts undertaken at NASA aimed at increasing the accessibility of formal methods are described. These include the production of the following: two NASA g...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2000
• Where: CSEE
• Authors: Ken Abernethy, John C. Kelly, Ann E. Kelley Sobel, James D. Kiper, John D. Powell
• Keywords: CSEE 2000, Formal Methods, Formal Modeling, Requirements, Software Engineering