Construction and analysis of ground models and their refinements as a foundation for validating computer-based systems

We explain why for the verified software challenge proposed in Hoare (J ACM 50(1): 63–69, 2003), Hoare and Misra (Verified software: theories, tools, experiments. Vision of a Grand Challenge project. In: [Meyer05]) to gain practical impact, one needs to include rigorous definitions and analysis, prior to code development and comprising both experimental validation and mathematical verification, of ground models , i.e., blueprints that describe the required application-content of programs. This implies the need to link via successive refinements the relevant properties of such high-level models in a traceable and checkable way to code a compiler can verify. We outline the Abstract State Machines (ASM) method, a discipline for reliable system development which allows one to bridge the gap between informal requirements and executable code by combining application-centric experimentally validatable system modelling with mathematically verifiable stepwise detailing of abstract models to compile-time-verifiable code.