Property transformation under specification change

Abstract

Formal specifications of software systems need to evolve in many ways during system development. Not only are changes required to refine the specification toward an implementation, they are also required in response to changes in requirements, or to incorporate different aspects of the system, e.g., fault tolerance or timing, initially ignored in order to simplify reasoning. This paper presents an approach for evolving Z specifications by the step-wise application of a number of simple rules. These rules not only document the evolution of the specification, but also make precise how properties of the system evolve with the specification. Hence, reasoning about these properties performed on the original specification need not be repeated on the new specification.

Keywords

formal methods / Z / refinement / temporal logic / system property

References

[1] Woodcock J C P, Davies J. Using Z: Specification, Refinement, and Proof. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1996

[2] Morgan C C. Programming From Specifications. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1990

[3] de Roever W P, Engelhardt K. Data Refinement: Model-Oriented Proof Methods and Their Comparison. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998

[4] Swartout W, Balzer R. On the inevitable intertwining of specification and implementation. Communications of the ACM, 1982, 25(7): 438-440

[5] van Schouwen A J, Parnas D, Madey J. Documentation of requirements for computer systems. In: Proceedings of 1st IEEE Symposium on Requirements Engineering. 1993, 198-207

[6] Hayes I J, Sanders J W. Specification by interface separation. Formal Aspects of Computing, 1995, 7(4): 430-439

[7] Guerra S. Defaults in the specification of reactive systems. Dissertation for the Doctoral Degree. London: University College London, 1999

[8] Bredereke J. Families of formal requirements in telephone switching. In: Calder M, Magill E H, eds. Feature Interactions in Telecommunications and Software Systems. IOS Press, 2000, 257-273

[9] van Lamsweerde A, Darimont R, Massonet P. Goaldirected elaboration of requirements for a meeting scheduler: Problems and lessons learnt. In: Proceedings of 2nd IEEE Symposium on Requirements Engineering. 1995, 194-203

[10] Liu S. Evolution: A more practical approach than refinement for software development. In: Proceedings of 1997 IEEE International Conference on Engineering of Complex Computer Systems. 1997, 142-151

[11] Smith G. Stepwise development from ideal specifications. In: Proceedings of 23rd Australasian Computer Science Conference. 2000, 227-233

[12] Banach R, Poppleton M, Jeske C, Stepney S. Engineering and theoretical underpinnings of retrenchment. Science of Computer Programming, 2007, 67(2-3): 301-329

[13] Emerson E A. Temporal and Modal Logic. Handbook of Theoretical Computer Science (Vol. B): Formal Models and Semantics. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990, 995-1072

[14] Smith G, Winter K. Proving temporal properties of Z specifications using abstraction. In: Proceedings of 3rd International Conference of Z and B Users. 2003, 260-270

[15] Smith G, Wildman L. Model checking Z specifications using SAL. In: Proceedings of 4th International Conference of Z and B Users. 2005, 85-103

[16] Derrick J, Boiten E. Refinement in Z and Object-Z: Foundations and Advanced Applications. London: Springer-Verlag, 2001

[17] Fu Z, Smith G. Towards more flexible development of Z specifications. In: Proceedings of 2nd IFIP/IEEE International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Software Engineering. 2008, 281-288

[18] Peterson G L. Myths about the mutual exclusion problem. Information Processing Letters, 1981, 12(3): 115-116

[19] Smith G. The Object-Z Specification Language. Hingham: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000

[20] Derrick J, Smith G. Linear temporal logic and Z refinement. In: Proceedings of 10th International Conference on Algebraic Methodology and Software Technology. 2004, 117-131

[21] McComb T, Smith G. A minimal set of refactoring rules for Object-Z. In: Proceedings of 10th IFIP WG 6.1 international conference on Formal Methods for Open Object-Based Distributed Systems. 2008, 170-184

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg