Rigorous development of reusable, domain-specific components, for complex applications

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Description/Abstract

The reuse of reliable, domain-specific software components is a strategy commonly used in the avionics industry to develop safety critical airborne systems. One method of achieving reuse is to use domain specific languages that map closely onto abstractions in the problem domain. While this works well for control algorithms, it is less successful for some complex ancillary functions such as failure management. The characteristics of device failures are often difficult to predict resulting in late requirements changes. Hence a small semantic gap is especially desirable but difficult to achieve. Object-oriented design techniques include mechanisms, such as inheritance, that cater well for variations in behaviour. However, object-oriented notations such as the UML lack the precision, and rigor, needed for safety critical software. UML-B is a profile of the UML for formal modelling. In this paper we show how UML-B can be used to model failure management systems via progressive refinement, and indicate how this approach could utilise UML concepts to cope with high variability, while providing rigorous verification.