SOFL: A Formal Engineering Methodology for Industrial Applications

—Formal methods have yet to achieve wide industrial acceptance for several reasons. They are not well integrated into hed industrial software processes, their application requires significant abstraction and mathematical skills, and existing tools do not satisfactorily support the entire formal software development process. We have proposed a language called SOFL (Structured-Object-based-Formal Language) and a SOFL methodology for system development that attempts to address these problems using an integration of formal methods, structured methods and object-oriented methodology. Construction of a system uses structured methods in requirements analysis and specifications, and an object-based methodology during design and implementation stages, with formal methods applied throughout the development in a manner that best suits their capabilities. This paper describes the SOFL methodology, which introduces some substantial changes from current formal methods practice. A comprehensive, pr...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1997
• Where: RE
• Authors: Shaoying Liu
• Keywords: Current Formal Methods, Formal Methods, RE 1997, SOFL Methodology, Software Engineering