Formal specification in collaborative design of critical software tools

Proceedings Third IEEE International High-Assurance Systems Engineering Symposium (Cat. No.98EX231) Pub Date : 1998-11-13 DOI:10.1109/HASE.1998.731590

D. Coppit, K. Sullivan

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引用次数: 16

Abstract

Engineers use software tools to analyze designs for critical systems. Because important decisions are based on tool results, tools must provide valid modeling constructs, engineers must understand them to validate their models; and tools must be implemented without major error. Such tools thus demand careful conceptual and software design. One aspect of such design is the use of rigorous specification and design techniques. This paper contributes a case study on the use of such techniques in the collaborative development of a dynamic fault tree analysis tool. The collaboration involved software engineering researchers knowledgeable in software specification and design and reliability engineering researchers expert in fault tree analysis. Our work revealed conceptual and implementation errors in an earlier version of the tool. Our study supports the position that there is a need for rigorous software specification and design in developing novel analysis tools, and that collaboration between software engineers and domain experts is feasible and profitable.

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关键软件工具协同设计中的形式化规范

工程师使用软件工具来分析关键系统的设计。因为重要的决策是基于工具的结果，工具必须提供有效的建模构造，工程师必须理解它们来验证他们的模型;工具的实现必须没有重大错误。因此，这样的工具需要仔细的概念和软件设计。这种设计的一个方面是使用严格的规范和设计技术。本文提供了一个在动态故障树分析工具的协同开发中使用这些技术的案例研究。该合作涉及软件工程研究人员在软件规范和设计和可靠性工程研究人员在故障树分析专家。我们的工作揭示了该工具早期版本中的概念和实现错误。我们的研究支持这样一种观点，即在开发新的分析工具时需要严格的软件规范和设计，并且软件工程师和领域专家之间的合作是可行且有利可图的。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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Proceedings Third IEEE International High-Assurance Systems Engineering Symposium (Cat. No.98EX231)

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