Lecture 17Formal Modeling Methods.ppt

Lecture 17:Formal Modeling Methods Formal Modeling Techniques Definition of FM Why use FM? Program Specification vs. Requirements Modeling Example Formal Methods: RSML SCR RML Telos Albert II Tips on formal modeling What are Formal Methods? Broad View (Leveson) application of discrete mathematics to software engineering involves modeling and analysis with an underlying mathematically-precise notation Narrow View (Wing) Use of a formal language a set of strings over some well-defined alphabet, with rules for distinguishing which strings belong to the language Formal reasoning about formulae in the language E.g. formal proofs: use axioms and proof rules to demonstrate that some formula is in the language For requirements modeling… A notation is formal if: …it comes with a formal set of rules which define its syntax and semantics. …the rules can be used to analyse expressions to determine if they are syntactically well-formed or to prove properties about them. Formal Methods in Software Engineering Why formalize? Removes ambiguity and improves precision To verify that the requirements have been met To reason about the requirements/designs Properties can be checked automatically Test for consistency, explore consequences, etc. To animate/execute specifications Helps with visualization and validation …because we have to formalize eventually anyway Need to bridge from the informal world to a formal machine domain Why people don’t formalize! Formal Methods tend to be lower level than other techniques They include too much detail Formal Methods concentrate on consistent, correct models …most of the time your models are inconsistent, incorrect, incomplete… People get confused about which tools are appropriate: specification of program behaviour vs. modeling of requirements formal methods advocates get too attached to one tool! Formal methods require more effort ...and the payoff is deferred Varieties of formal analysis Consistency analysis and typechecking “Is the formal mo