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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]

Formal methods have yet to achieve wide industrial acceptance for several reasons. They are not well integrated into established industrial software processes, their application requires significant abstraction and mathematical skills, and existing tools do not satisfactorily support the entire formal software development process. We have proposed a language called SOFL (Structured-Object-based-Formal Language) and a SOFL methodology for system development that attempts to address these problems using an integration of formal methods, structured methods and object-oriented methodology. Construction of a system uses structured methods in requirements analysis and specifications, and an object-based methodology during design and implementation stages, with formal methods applied throughout the development in a manner that best suits their capabilities. This paper describes the SOFL methodology, which introduces some substantial changes from current formal methods practice. A comprehensive, practical case study of an actual industrial Residential Suites Management System illustrates how SOFL is used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes three case studies in the lightweight application of formal methods to requirements modeling for spacecraft fault protection systems. The case studies differ from previously reported applications of formal methods in that formal methods were applied very early in the, requirements engineering process, to validate the evolving requirements. The results were fed back into the projects, to improve the informal specifications. For each case study, we describe what methods were applied, how they were applied, how much effort was involved, and what the findings were. In all three cases, formal methods enhanced the existing verification and validation processes, by testing key properties of the evolving requirements, and helping to identify weaknesses. We conclude that the benefits gained from early modeling of unstable requirements more than outweigh the effort needed to maintain multiple representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]