Abstract
The first chapter introduces the notion of rigourous software development in the context of the classic software development methods used in software engineering. The rigorous aspect in particular, which is properly contextualised and justified in this chapter, is here introduced as the result of following a formal approach, by which we mean the use of tools and methods of a mathematical nature.
In order to allow the reader to understand their value, these methods are compared, throughout the chapter, with more traditional methods such as testing and simulation, and placed in the normative context in use in the different application areas of software engineering.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
This quality measure is known astest coverage.
- 3.
A test suite has a good coverage, say 100% coverage, if all parts of the system are covered by its tests.
- 4.
Incidentally, Java is also safer than C regardingtypes, since it is a strongly-typed programming language.
- 5.
The standard IEC 61508 “Functional safety of electrical/electronic/programmable electronic safety-related systems” also uses a (slightly different) SIL classification.
- 6.
The definition of the GSW standard was in fact based on DO-178B.
- 7.
Such a combination of requirements is called aprotection profile.
- 8.
In a very simplistic way, the preparatory reports consist of lists of facts to be verified, and the reports of the validation phase are simply observations, based on the validation process, of whether or not those facts were successfully validated.
- 9.
Of course, other post-implementation phases such as testing, training, and maintenance may well be present in this process.
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Almeida, J.B., Frade, M.J., Pinto, J.S., Melo de Sousa, S. (2011). Introduction. In: Rigorous Software Development. Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-018-2_1
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