Abstract
We present the concept of an agenda and apply this concept to the formal specification of software for safety-critical applications. An agenda describes a list of activities to solving a task in software engineering, and validations of the results of the activities. Agendas used to support the application of formal specification techniques provide detailed guidance for specifiers, schematic expressions of the used specification language that only need to be instantiated, and application independent validation criteria. We present an agenda for a frequently used design of safety-critical systems and illustrate its usage by an example. Using agendas to systematically develop formal specifications for safety-critical software contributes to system safety because, first, the specifications are developed in a standardized way, making them better comprehensible for other persons. Secondly, using a formal language yields specifications with an unambiguous semantics as the starting point of further design and implementation. Thirdly, the recommended validation criteria draw the specifier’s attention to common mistakes and thus enhance the quality of the resulting specification.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Yuri Chernack. A statistical approach to the inspection checklist formal synthesis and improvement. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 22(12):866—874, December 1996.
Jim Davies. Specification and Proof in Real-Time CSP. Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Maritta Heisel. Improving Software Quality with Formal Methods: Methodology and Machine Support. Habilitation Thesis, TU Berlin, 1997. submitted.
Constance Heitmeyer and Dino Mandrioli, editors. Formal Methods for Real-Time Computing, chapter 1. Trends in Software. John Wiley & Sons, 1996.
Maritta Heisel and Carsten Siihl. Formal specification of safety-critical software with Z and real-time CSP. In E. Schoitsch, editor, Proceedings 15th International Conference on Computer Safety, Reliability and Security, pages 31–45. Springer, 1996.
Jeanine Souquieres and Nicole Levy. Description of specification developments. In Proc. of Requirements Engineering ’93, pages 216–223, 1993.
J.M.Spivey. The Z Notation - A Reference Manual. Prentice Hall, 2nd edition, 1992.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer-Verlag London Limited
About this paper
Cite this paper
Heisel, M., Siihl, C. (1997). Methodological Support for Formally Specifying Safety-Critical Software. In: Daniel, P. (eds) Safe Comp 97. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0997-6_23
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0997-6_23
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-76191-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-0997-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive