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The class diagram is a tool for developing object-oriented software. It is essential that its interpretation by any analyst lacks ambiguity. In this paper, we present an interpretation of the class diagram from the perspective of an equational logic through a systematic breakdown of each of its elements. Our aim is to provide a formal specification for the class diagram susceptible of being processed and executed. For our formalization, we used the Maude language, because it allows us to define formal algebraic specifications for abstract data types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formal specification is an active research field in software engineering of this century, where different configurations and techniques are employed and although their industrial use is still limited, the scientific community currently has a different understanding about its usefulness and necessity. Until present time, researchers' work focuses on the specification written during the design of the preliminary functional model, for this reason it mainly focuses on evaluating the related tools. In this paper, a literature review is performed, covering the essence, function, use and disadvantages of formal specification techniques and some assessment and evaluation criteria are analyzed regarding their weaknesses. The results become the basis for future work formulation, aimed to the strengthening of formal specification as a core research activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]