Skip to main content

Development of a Supporting Tool for Formalizing Software Requirements

  • Conference paper

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 7787))

Abstract

Formal specification precisely documents expected behaviors of the system under construction, which provides a firm foundation for ensuring software quality and facilitating software maintenance. However, describing software requirements in formal specifications remains a challenge for practitioners and becomes one of the obstacles toward widespread use of formal methods in industry. To deal with the problem, this paper describes an interactive tool that assists designers in software requirement formalization. It retrieves informal requirements from the designer and automatically generates the corresponding formalization result. Based on a knowledge base stored in XML files, the tool implements a core engine for producing comprehensible guidance. By conducting a case study on a banking system, the effectiveness of the tool is shown.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Raymond Abrial, J.: Formal methods: Theory becoming practice. Journal of Universal Computer Science, 619–628 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Woodcock, J., Larsen, P.G., Bicarregui, J., Fitzgerald, J.: Formal methods: Practice and experience. ACM Comput. Surv. 41, 19:1–19:36 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Almeida, J.: An overview of formal methods tools and techniques. Springer (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Wang, X., Liu, S., Miao, H.: A pattern system to support refining informal ideas into formal expressions. In: Dong, J.S., Zhu, H. (eds.) ICFEM 2010. LNCS, vol. 6447, pp. 662–677. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  5. Liu, S.: Formal Engineering for Industrial Software Development. Springer (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Liu, S., Offutt, A., Ho-Stuart, C., Sun, Y., Ohba, M.: SOFL: A formal engineering methodology for industrial applications. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 24, 24–45 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Liu, S.: Formal engineering for industrial software development – an introduction to the SOFL specification language and method. In: Davies, J., Schulte, W., Barnett, M. (eds.) ICFEM 2004. LNCS, vol. 3308, pp. 7–8. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  8. Liu, S.: Integrating top-down and scenario-based methods for constructing software specifications. Inf. Softw. Technol. 51, 1565–1572 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Ding, J., Mo, L., He, X.: An approach for specification construction using property-preserving refinement patterns. In: Proceedings of the 2008 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, SAC 2008, pp. 797–803. ACM, New York (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Stepney, S., Polack, F., Toyn, I.: An outline pattern language for Z: Five illustrations and two tables. In: Bert, D., Bowen, J.P., King, S., Waldén, M. (eds.) ZB 2003. LNCS, vol. 2651, pp. 2–19. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  11. Vadera, S., Meziane, F.: From English to formal specifications. The Computer Journal 37, 753–763 (1994)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Konrad, S., Cheng, B.H.C.: Real-time specification patterns. In: Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE 2005, pp. 372–381. ACM, New York (2005)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Wang, X., Liu, S. (2013). Development of a Supporting Tool for Formalizing Software Requirements. In: Liu, S. (eds) Structured Object-Oriented Formal Language and Method. SOFL 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7787. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39277-1_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39277-1_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-39276-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-39277-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics