Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Formal methods & service specification

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Book cover Towards a Pan-European Telecommunication Service Infrastructure — IS&N '94 (IS&N 1994)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 851))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

There is still clearly widespread resistance to the deployment of formal methods in industry. On the other hand, certain fields of application, viz. VLSI design, protocol specification, and certain kinds of system, viz. safety-critical, real-time, have of necessity already deployed some form of well-defined engineering methods to ensure a high degree of robustness and reliability in delivered products. In the telecommunications field there is currently a sense of the inevitable in the absolute necessity for the ultimate deployment of formal methods for service specification.

In this paper we begin by establishing our universe of discourse in order to de-mystify the term ‘formal methods’. Then, recognising the real need to justify yet again the use of ‘formal methods’ in industry, we set forth those principles by which management may be guided. Finally, we indicate exactly in what manner ‘formal methods’ may be embedded within a system development process model.

For definiteness, our arguments are presented within the context of multimedia service specification, in which context we take the liberty to announce some new results.

The results reported in this paper have arisen from work partially funded by the RACE Project Ref: 2017, Service Creation in an Object-oriented Reuse Environment (SCORE). The opinions expressed are those of the authors.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. 00-55 (PART 1)/Issue 1, The Procurement of Safety Critical Software in Defence Equipment, PART 1: Requirements. Ministry of Defence, Interim Defence Standard, UK, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  2. 00-55 (PART 2)/Issue 1, The Procurement of Safety Critical Software in Defence Equipment, PART 2: Guidance. Ministry of Defence, Interim Defence Standard, UK, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Dines Bjørner and Cliff B. Jones, editors. The Vienna Development Method: The Meta-Language, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 61. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Michael Atiyah et al. Responses to ‘Theoretical Mathematics': Toward Cultural Synthesis of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, by A. Jaffe and F. Quinn. Bulletin (New Series) of the American Mathematical Society, 30(2):178–207, April 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Jonathan Bowen and Victoria Stavridou. The Industrial Take-up of Formal Methods in Safety-Critical and Other Areas: A Perspective. In J. C. P. Woodcock and P. G. Larsen, editors, FME'93: Industrial-Strength Formal Methods, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 670, pages 183–95. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Jean Dieudonné. Mathematics—the Music of Reason. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1992. H. G. and J. C. Dales (trans.), from the French Pour l'honneur de l'esprit humain, Hachette, Paris, 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Nancy D. Griffeth and Yow-Jian Lin. Extending Telecommunications Systems: The Feature Interaction Problem, Guest Editors' Introduction. IEEE Computer, 26(8):14–18, August 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Arthur Jaffe and Frank Quinn. 'Theoretical Mathematics': Toward Cultural Synthesis of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. Bulletin (New Series) of the American Mathematical Society, 29(1):1–13, July 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Haim Kilov and James M. Ross, III. Information Modeling: An Object-Oriented Approach. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Mícheál Mac an Airchinnigh. Ph.D. Thesis: Conceptual Models and Computing. Department of Computer Science, University of Dublin, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Mícheál Mac an Airchinnigh. Tutorial Lecture Notes on the Irish School of the VDM. In S. Prehn and W. J. Toetenel, editors, VDM'91, Formal Software Development Methods Volume 2: Tutorials, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 552, pages 141–237. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Mícheál Mac an Airchinnigh. Formal Methods & Testing. In Tutorials of the Sixth International Software Quality Week, 625 Third Street, San Francisco, CA 94107-1997, May 1993. Software Research Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Norman Potter. What is a designer: things, places, messages. Hyphen Press, London, revised third edition, [1969], 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Jacques Printz. Mathematical training for the software developers: a practical experience. Bulletin of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science, (52):336–373, February 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Margaret Tierney. Software Engineering Standards: the ‘Formal Methods Debate’ in the UK. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 4(3):245–78, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Jeffrey J. P. Tsai, Thomas Weigert, and Hung-Chin Jang. A Hybrid Representation as a Basis of Requirement Specification and Specification Analysis. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 18(12):1076–100, December 1992.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Debora Weber-Wulff. Selling Formal Methods to Industry. In J. C. P. Woodcock and P. G. Larsen, editors, FME'93: Industrial-Strength Formal Methods, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 670, pages 671–8. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Pamela Zave. Feature Interactions and Formal Specifications in Telecommunications. IEEE Computer, 26(8):20–30, August 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Pamela Zave and Michael Jackson. Techniques for Partial Specification and Specification of Switching Systems. In S. Prehn and W. J. Toetenel, editors, VDM'91, Formal Software Development Methods Volume 1: Conference Contributions, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 552, pages 511–25. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Trinity College, Dublin

    Mícheál Mac an Airchinnigh

  2. Generics (Software) Limited and K&M Technologies Limited, Ireland

    Mícheál Mac an Airchinnigh

  3. Gaustadalleen 23, Norsk Regnesentral, Blindern, P.O. Box 114, N-0314, Oslo, Norway

    Dag Belsnes

  4. K&M Technologies Limited, Bray, Co., Wicklow, Ireland

    Gerard O'Regan

Authors
  1. Mícheál Mac an Airchinnigh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Dag Belsnes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Gerard O'Regan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Hans-Jürgen Kugler Al Mullery Norbert Niebert

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Airchinnigh, M.M.a., Belsnes, D., O'Regan, G. (1994). Formal methods & service specification. In: Kugler, HJ., Mullery, A., Niebert, N. (eds) Towards a Pan-European Telecommunication Service Infrastructure — IS&N '94. IS&N 1994. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 851. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0013448

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0013448

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-58420-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48784-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation