Abstract
“Structured Common Sense” (SCS) is a method for eliciting requirements and formalizing them in modal action logic (MAL). SCS was developed using the methodology of focussing on MAL’s principle concepts and abstract syntactic categories, and inventing or selecting techniques suitable for exactly those concepts. SCS is well suited to MAL because it is directly targeted on it.
We provide a brief review of MAL. The steps of SCS are outlined in more detail with illustrations from the specification of a simple system. The incorporation of temporal requirements, the structuring of larger specifications, iterative specification development and the role of tool support are discussed.
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
Ross, D.T. & Shoman, K.E. ‘Structured analysis for requirements definition’ IEEE Trans. Software Emg. SE-3: 6–15, 1977
De Marco, T. Structured Analysis and System Specification Yourdon, 1978
Mullery, G. ‘CORE — A method for controlled requirement specification’ Proc. 4th Int. Conf. Software Eng. IEEE Comp. Soc. Press, 1976
Guttag, J. & Horning, J.J. Formal Specification as a Design Tool Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre Report CSL-80–1, 1980
Zave, P. ‘The operational versus the conventional approach to software development’ Comm. ACM 27(2): 104–118, 1984
Hoare, C.A.R. Communicating Sequential Processes Prentice-Hall, 1985
Maibaum, T.S.E. A Logic for the Formal Requirements Specification of Real-Time I Embedded Systems FOREST Report R3, GEC Research Laboratories, Marconi Research Centre, Great Baddow, Chelmsford, England, 1986
Cunningham, R.J., Finkelstein, A.C.W., Goldsack, S.J., Maibaum, T.S.E. & Potts, C. ‘Formal Requirements Specification — The FOREST Project’ Proc. 3rd Int. Workshop Software Specification & Design IEEE Comp. Soc. Press, 1985
Finkelstein, A.C.W. & Potts, C. ‘Structured Common Sense: The elicitation and formalization of system requirements’ in P.J. Brown and D.J. Barnes (Eds.) Software Engineering ‘86 Peter Peregrinus, 1986
Potts, C., Finkelstein, A.C.W., Aslett, M. & Booth, J. A Requirements Elicitation and Formalization Method for Real-Time/Embedded Systems, FOREST Report R2, GEC Research Laboratories, Marconi Research Centre, Great Baddow, Chelmsford, England, 1986
Finkelstein, A.C.W. & Potts, C. Evaluation of Existing Requirements Extraction Strategies FOREST Report, Rl, GEC Research Laboratories, Marconi Research Centre, Great Baddow, Chelmsford, England, 1985
Jackson, M.A. ‘Constructive methods of program design’ Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 44: 236–262, Springer-Verlag, 1976
Jackson, M.A. Principles of Program Design Academic Press, 1975
Allen, J.F. ‘Maintaining knowledge about temporal intervals’ Comm. ACM 26(11): 832–843, 1983
Jordan, D., Glensiter, S.M.D., Tavendale, R.D. & Gallacher, R. Specification of a Support Environment for a Formal Requirements Specification Toolset FOREST Report R8, GEC Research Laboratories, Marconi Research Centre, Great Baddow, Chelmsford, England, 1986
Balzer, R., Cohen, D., Feather, M., Goldman, N., Swartout, W. & Wile, D. ‘Operational specification as the basis for specification validation’ in Ferrari, Boldognani & Goguen (Eds.) Theory and Practice of Software Technology North-Holland, 1983
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1987 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Finkelstein, A., Potts, C. (1987). Formalizing Requirements Systematically. In: Wagner, R.R., Traunmüller, R., Mayr, H.C. (eds) Informationsbedarfsermittlung und -analyse für den Entwurf von Informationssystemen. Informatik-Fachberichte, vol 143. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-72821-1_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-72821-1_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-18052-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-72821-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive