Analogical approach to specification derivation

Abstract

Software tools are essential for writing specifications. This paper describes how analogical reasoning can play an important role in such a tool. A knowledge base of specifications informal and formal of a representative class of problems and a set of heuristic rules analogical spectfication derivation are used to transform a given informal spectfication into a formal one. Analogies are detected between components of the given (target) informal specification and components of one or more (base) informal spectfications from the knowledge base. Ordering of the analogies and subsequent selection is performed by invoking heuristics germane to the situation. Due to the nature of the analogy process, the derived specification may be incorrect. A heuristic has been developed to correct some such errors.