Experience using VDM in STC

Abstract

Introducing any new technology involves organisational, skill, method and tool changes, which require a commitment from the industry concerned. The introduction of formal methods into system and software design is no exception. Before the widespread use of formal methods can be achieved, it will be necessary for the IT industry to convince itself that the methods are genuinely usable in an industrial context, can be made to fit within the market and technical environment, and yield significant improvements over conventional methods. This paper describes some of the ways in which STC has used VDM to develop real systems and the benefits which we feel have been achieved. At the same time, some limitations of the existing methods have been noted, giving pointers for further development of the technology.