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In this paper, we demonstrate how model checking can be used to verify safety properties for event-driven systems. SCR tabular requirements describe required system behavior in a format that is intuitive, easy to read, and scalable to large systems (e.g., the software requirements for the A7 aircraft). Model checking of temporal logics has been established as a sound technique for verifying properties of hardware systems. We have developed an automated technique for formalizing the semiformal SCR requirements and for transforming the resultant formal specification onto a finite structure that a model checker can analyze. This technique was effective in uncovering violations of system invariants in both an automobile cruise control system and a water-level monitoring system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract requirements specification states system requirements precisely without describing a real or a paradigm implementation. Although such specifications have important advantages, they are difficult to produce for complex systems and hence are seldom seen in the "real" programming world. This paper introduces an approach to producing abstract requirements specifications that applies to a significant class of real-world systems, including any system that must reconstruct data that have undergone a sequence of transformations. It also describes how the approach was used to produce a requirements document for SCP, a small, but nontrivial Navy communications system. The specification techniques used in the SCP requirements document are introduced and illustrated with examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we report the results of an experimental study of software matrics for a fairly large software system used in a real-time application. We examine a number of issues, including the mutual relationship between various software metrics and, more importantly, the relationship between metrics and the development effort. We report some interesting connections between metrics and the software development effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software development environments help programmers perform tasks related to the software development process. Different programming projects require different environments. However, handcrafting a separate environment for each project is not economically feasible. Gandalf solves this problem by permitting environment designers to generate families of software development environments semiautomatically without excessive cost. Environments generated using Gandalf address both programming environments, which help ease the programming process, and system development environments, which reduce the degree to which a soft- ware project is dependent on the good will of its members. Gandalf environments integrate programming and system development, permitting interactions not available in traditional environments. The paper covers several topics including the basic characteristics of Gandalf environments, our method for generating these environments, the structure and function of several existing Gandalf environments, and ongoing and planned research of the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experience from a dozen years of analyzing software engineering processes and products is summarized as a set of software engineering and measurement principles that argue for software engineering process models that integrate sound planning and analysis into the construction process. In the TAME (Tailoring A Measurement Environment) project at the University of Maryland we have developed such an improvement-oriented software engineering process model that uses the goal/question/metric paradigm to integrate the constructive and analytic aspects of software development. The model provides a mechanism for formalizing the characterization and planning tasks, controlling and improving projects based on quantitative analysis, learning in a deeper and more systematic way about the software process and product, and feeding the appropriate experience back into the current and future projects. The TAME system is an instantiation of the TAME software engineering process model as an ISEE (Integrated Software Engineering Environment). The first in a series cafe TAME system prototypes has been developed. An assessment of experience with this first limited prototype is presented including a reassessment of its initial architecture. The long-term goal of this building effort is to develop a better understanding of appropriate ISEE architectures that optimally support the improvement-oriented TAME software engineering process model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]