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Behaviour-driven formal model development

Behaviour-driven formal model development
Behaviour-driven formal model development
Formal systems modelling offers a rigorous system-level analysis resulting in a precise and reliable specification. However, some issues remain: Modellers need to understand the requirements in order to formulate the models, formal verification may focus on safety properties rather than temporal behaviour, domain experts need to validate the
final models to ensure they fit the needs of stakeholders. In this paper we discuss how the principles of Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD) can be applied to formal systems modelling and validation. We propose a process where manually authored scenarios are used initially to support the requirements and help the modeller.
The same scenarios are used to verify behavioural properties of the model. The model is then mutated to automatically generate scenarios that have a more complete coverage than the manual ones. These automatically generated scenarios are used to animate the model in a final acceptance stage. For this acceptance stage, it is important that a domain expert decides whether or not the behaviour is useful.
Formal modelling, Scenarios, Mutation testing, Acceptance testing
21-36
Springer
Snook, Colin
b2055316-9f7a-4b31-8aa1-be0710046af2
Hoang, Thai Son
dcc0431d-2847-4e1d-9a85-54e4d6bab43f
Dghaym, Dana
b7b69fe2-c9ff-43ad-a6ba-8b41d6fd19fc
Butler, Michael
54b9c2c7-2574-438e-9a36-6842a3d53ed0
Fischer, Tomas
2d38d5a2-37f5-444d-89ef-9e2ddce89e09
Schlick, Rupert
dbd21213-7d1e-47c6-afe5-9bd7e228c847
Wang, Keming
63694d58-8267-4707-84f7-a8cb1a77a282
Sun, J.
Sun, M.
Snook, Colin
b2055316-9f7a-4b31-8aa1-be0710046af2
Hoang, Thai Son
dcc0431d-2847-4e1d-9a85-54e4d6bab43f
Dghaym, Dana
b7b69fe2-c9ff-43ad-a6ba-8b41d6fd19fc
Butler, Michael
54b9c2c7-2574-438e-9a36-6842a3d53ed0
Fischer, Tomas
2d38d5a2-37f5-444d-89ef-9e2ddce89e09
Schlick, Rupert
dbd21213-7d1e-47c6-afe5-9bd7e228c847
Wang, Keming
63694d58-8267-4707-84f7-a8cb1a77a282
Sun, J.
Sun, M.

Snook, Colin, Hoang, Thai Son, Dghaym, Dana, Butler, Michael, Fischer, Tomas, Schlick, Rupert and Wang, Keming (2018) Behaviour-driven formal model development. Sun, J. and Sun, M. (eds.) In Formal Methods and Software Engineering: 20th International Conference on Formal Engineering Methods, ICFEM 2018, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia, November 12-16, 2018, Proceedings. Springer. pp. 21-36 . (doi:10.1007/978-3-030-02450-5_2).

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Formal systems modelling offers a rigorous system-level analysis resulting in a precise and reliable specification. However, some issues remain: Modellers need to understand the requirements in order to formulate the models, formal verification may focus on safety properties rather than temporal behaviour, domain experts need to validate the
final models to ensure they fit the needs of stakeholders. In this paper we discuss how the principles of Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD) can be applied to formal systems modelling and validation. We propose a process where manually authored scenarios are used initially to support the requirements and help the modeller.
The same scenarios are used to verify behavioural properties of the model. The model is then mutated to automatically generate scenarios that have a more complete coverage than the manual ones. These automatically generated scenarios are used to animate the model in a final acceptance stage. For this acceptance stage, it is important that a domain expert decides whether or not the behaviour is useful.

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More information

Submitted date: 25 May 2018
Accepted/In Press date: 29 June 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 11 October 2018
Published date: 2018
Venue - Dates: The 20th International Conference on Formal Engineering Methods, , Gold Coast, Australia, 2018-11-12 - 2018-11-16
Keywords: Formal modelling, Scenarios, Mutation testing, Acceptance testing

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 422289
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/422289
PURE UUID: 3f6939a4-06a8-46ab-9dcc-24df63feff71
ORCID for Colin Snook: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0210-0983
ORCID for Thai Son Hoang: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4095-0732
ORCID for Dana Dghaym: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2196-2749
ORCID for Michael Butler: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4642-5373

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 20 Jul 2018 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 06:52

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Contributors

Author: Colin Snook ORCID iD
Author: Thai Son Hoang ORCID iD
Author: Dana Dghaym ORCID iD
Author: Michael Butler ORCID iD
Author: Tomas Fischer
Author: Rupert Schlick
Author: Keming Wang
Editor: J. Sun
Editor: M. Sun

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