Abstract
A reasonable approach to formal modelling is to start with a specification that captures the requirements of a system and then use formal refinement to implement it.
The problem with this approach is that for complex systems the specification itself is complex. It becomes a challenge to say whether the specification is the right one for the given requirements. Sometimes requirements also concern features of a system closely related to its implementation. This would make an abstract specification necessarily incomplete.
We believe that it is better not to follow the rigid approach to modelling described above. Instead, we argue that the specification itself should be elaborated by refinement. Ultimately, the distinction between specification and implementation is no longer made in the strict sense above. There is only one model of the system that is connected by successive refinements. Using Event-B, we demonstrate how this can be applied to cope with the complexity of specifications. On the one hand we benefit from the reduced number of detail to consider at different times. On the other hand we are encouraged to reason about the formal model since the beginning and to rethink it occasionally to capture better its intended behaviour and match the requirements.
This research was carried out as part of the EU research project DEPLOY (Industrial deployment of system engineering methods providing high dependability and productivity) http://www.deploy-project.eu/
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Hallerstede, S. (2009). Incremental System Modelling in Event-B. In: de Boer, F.S., Bonsangue, M.M., Madelaine, E. (eds) Formal Methods for Components and Objects. FMCO 2008. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5751. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04167-9_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04167-9_8
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