An empirical research agenda for understanding formal methods productivity

Jeffery, D. Ross; Staples, Mark; Andronick, June; Klein, Gerwin; Murray, Toby

doi:10.1016/j.infsof.2014.11.005

Cited by 17 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Such evidence can be delivered through empirical research [e.g. 98,151,163,177] and collaboration of academia and industry. That evidence is required to re-evaluate research and foster research progress and transfer.…”

Section: A Vision Of Integrated Formal Methods For Assurancementioning

confidence: 99%

New Opportunities for Integrated Formal Methods

2019

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Formal methods have provided approaches for investigating software engineering fundamentals and also have high potential to improve current practices in dependability assurance. In this article, we summarise known strengths and weaknesses of formal methods. From the perspective of the assurance of robots and autonomous systems (RAS), we highlight new opportunities for integrated formal methods and identify threats to the adoption of such methods. Based on these opportunities and threats, we develop an agenda for fundamental and empirical research on integrated formal methods and for successful transfer of validated research to RAS assurance. Furthermore, we outline our expectations on useful outcomes of such an agenda. AcronymsAI artificial intelligence ASIL automotive safety integrity level DA dependability assurance DAL design assurance level DSE dependable systems engineering DSL domain-specific language FDA Food and Drug Administration FI formal inspection FM formal method HCI human-computer interaction iFM integrated formal method IT information technology MBD model-based development MDE model-driven engineering ML machine learning RAS robots and autonomous systems RCA root cause analysis RE requirements engineering SACM Structured Assurance Case Meta-model SC systematic capability SIL safety integrity level SMT Satisfiability Modulo Theory SWOT strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats SysML Systems Modelling Language UML Unified Modelling Language UTP Unifying Theories of ProgrammingWe view robots and autonomous systems as both dependable systems and highly automated machines capable of achieving a variety of complex tasks in support of humans. We can consider such systems by looking at four layers: the plant or process composed of the operational environment and the machine; the machine itself; the machine's controller, and the software embedded into this controller. Based on these layers, we treat "embedded system" and "embedded software" as synonyms. Machine, controller, and software can all be distributed.By dependable systems engineering, we refer to error-avoidance and error-detection activities in control system and embedded software development (e.g. according to the V-model). Avizienis et al.[7] devised a comprehensive terminology and an overview of the assessment and handling of a variety of faults, errors, and failures. For critical systems, such activities are expected to be explicit (e.g. traceable, documented), to employ best practices (e.g. design patterns), and to be driven by reasonably qualified personnel (e.g. well-trained and experienced engineers or programmers).The need for dependability often arises from the embedding of software into a cyber-physical context (i.e., an electronic execution platform, a physical process to be controlled, and other systems or human users to interact with). Dependability assurance (DA), or assurance for short, encompasses the usually cross-disciplinary task of providing evidence for an assurance case (e.g. safety, security, reliability) for a sys...

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Section: A Vision Of Integrated Formal Methods For Assurancementioning

confidence: 99%

New Opportunities for Integrated Formal Methods

2019

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“…Matichuk et al (2015a) analyze the Isabelle/HOL specifications and proof scripts from the seL4 project, and find a quadratic relationship between the size of a formal property and the proof script required to prove it. Jeffery et al (2015) identify 30 research questions about productivity in application of formal methods, such as verification using proof assistants. Klein et al (2017) outline the benefits of trustworthy systems.…”

Section: User Productivity and Cost Estimationmentioning

confidence: 99%

QED at Large: A Survey of Engineering of Formally Verified Software

Ringer

Palmskog

Sergey

et al. 2019

FNT in Programming Languages

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Development of formal proofs of correctness of programs can increase actual and perceived reliability and facilitate better understanding of program specifications and their underlying assumptions. Tools supporting such development have been available for over 40 years, but have only recently seen wide practical use. Projects based on construction of machine-checked formal proofs are now reaching an unprecedented scale, comparable to large software projects, which leads to new challenges in proof development and maintenance. Despite its increasing importance, the field of proof engineering is seldom considered in its own right; related theories, techniques, and tools span many fields and venues. This survey of the literature presents a holistic understanding of proof engineering for program correctness, covering impact in practice, foundations, proof automation, proof organization, and practical proof development.

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“…Formal methods try to achieve the consistency and stable OpenFlow interactions between the SDN layers . Furthermore, the formal method illustrates the specification and verification of the correctness of a system's behavior using mathematical and logical methods . For analyzing the SDN approaches, the formal verification mechanisms can be very useful to measure the functional and nonfunctional properties (NFPs).…”

Section: Motivation and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…14 Furthermore, the formal method illustrates the specification and verification of the correctness of a system's behavior using mathematical and logical methods. 15,16 For analyzing the SDN approaches, the formal verification mechanisms can be very useful to measure the functional and nonfunctional properties (NFPs). These mechanisms are categorized into three main methods: process algebra, 17,18 model checking, 4,19 and theorem proving.…”

Section: Preliminaries and Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

A systematic literature review on formal verification of software‐defined networks

Souri

Norouzi

Asghari

et al. 2019

Trans Emerging Tel Tech

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By raising evolutionary network connections, a software‐defined network (SDN) offers a well‐managed and flexible novel network topology. The SDN efforts are provided to abstract the original network configuration for business applications and web services. Additionally, the SDN modifies the network management policies such as topology policies, deployment policies, the applicability, and infrastructure maintenance. One of the important features of the SDN is standardizing the network interfaces with the precise functional semantics in application and control flow layers. In another hand, specification and evaluation of the existing network interfaces is a main and significant challenge to prove the correctness of the configurable scenarios in the SDN approach. Recently, formal verification presents a high potential platform to evaluate the main‐layer scenarios of the SDN as the novel perspective in this area. Up to now, there is no survey and state‐of‐the‐art review on the formal verification methods in the SDN. This paper provides a systematic literature review (SLR) for the formal verification methods in the SDN in form of the SDN plans to recognize the state of the art of the open challenges. The presented SLR is classified into three main fields: application plan, data plan, and control plan approaches. The verification mechanisms are compared with each other according to the important factors such as structural properties, quality‐of‐service metrics, applied algorithms, and measurement tools.

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An empirical research agenda for understanding formal methods productivity

Cited by 17 publications

References 38 publications

New Opportunities for Integrated Formal Methods

New Opportunities for Integrated Formal Methods

QED at Large: A Survey of Engineering of Formally Verified Software

A systematic literature review on formal verification of software‐defined networks

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