Investigating the readability of state-based formal requirements specification languages

The readability of formal requirements specification languages is hypothesized as a limiting factor in the acceptance of formal methods by the industrial community. An empirical study was conducted to determine how various factors of state-based requirements specification language design affect read...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings - International Conference on Software Engineering pp. 33 - 43
Main Authors: Zimmerman, Marc K., Lundqvist, Kristina, Leveson, Nancy
Format: Conference Proceeding Journal Article
Language:English
Published: New York, NY, USA ACM 01.01.2002
Series:ACM Conferences
Subjects:
Applied computing > Physical sciences and engineering > Aerospace
Applied sciences
Computer science; control theory; systems
Exact sciences and technology
Software
Software and its engineering > Software creation and management > Software development process management > Software development methods
Software and its engineering > Software notations and tools > System description languages > Specification languages
Software engineering
Preliminary design
Formal language
Specification language
Formal method
Aerospace
Experimental design
Formal specification
Legibility
ISBN:158113472X, 9781581134728
ISSN:0270-5257
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The readability of formal requirements specification languages is hypothesized as a limiting factor in the acceptance of formal methods by the industrial community. An empirical study was conducted to determine how various factors of state-based requirements specification language design affect readability using aerospace applications. Six factors were tested in all, including the representation of the overall state machine structure, the expression of triggering conditions, the use of macros, the use of internal broadcast events, the use of hierarchies, and transition perspective (going-to or coming-from). Subjects included computer scientists as well as aerospace engineers in an effort to determine whether background affects notational preferences. Because so little previous experimentation on this topic exists on which to build hypotheses, the study was designed as a preliminary exploration of what factors are most important with respect to readability. It can serve as a starting point for more thorough and carefully controlled experimentation in specification language readability.
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ISBN:158113472X
9781581134728
ISSN:0270-5257
DOI:10.1145/581339.581347