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Engineering formal requirements: An analysis and testing method for Z documents

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Annals of Software Engineering

Abstract

Z is a declarative, non‐executable specification language; its diffusion in the field of requirements engineering outside academia is slow but growing. In this paper we focus on some methods for analyzing and testing Z specification documents, with special emphasis on non‐sequential systems specifications. We describe two techniques we have adopted: the former allows the specifier to add to the requirements document a number of properties that then can be checked using a formal semantics; the latter makes it possible to build directly from the requirements specification document a distributed prototype which can be executed and tested over a network of workstations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Informazione, Università di Bologna, Via Mura Anteo Zamboni 7, I‐40127, Bologna, Italy

    P. Ciancarini, S. Cimato & C. Mascolo

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  1. P. Ciancarini
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  2. S. Cimato
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  3. C. Mascolo
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Ciancarini, P., Cimato, S. & Mascolo, C. Engineering formal requirements: An analysis and testing method for Z documents. Annals of Software Engineering 3, 189–219 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018965316985

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