Standard

The Role of Formalism in System Requirements. / Bruel, Jean-Michel; Ebersold, Sophie; Galinier, Florian et al.

In: ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 54, No. 5, 93, 30.06.2022, p. 1-36.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Harvard

Bruel, J-M, Ebersold, S, Galinier, F, Mazzara, M, Naumchev, A & Meyer, B 2022, 'The Role of Formalism in System Requirements', ACM Computing Surveys, vol. 54, no. 5, 93, pp. 1-36. https://doi.org/10.1145/3448975

APA

Bruel, J-M., Ebersold, S., Galinier, F., Mazzara, M., Naumchev, A., & Meyer, B. (2022). The Role of Formalism in System Requirements. ACM Computing Surveys, 54(5), 1-36. [93]. https://doi.org/10.1145/3448975

Vancouver

Bruel J-M, Ebersold S, Galinier F, Mazzara M, Naumchev A, Meyer B. The Role of Formalism in System Requirements. ACM Computing Surveys. 2022 Jun 30;54(5):1-36. 93. doi: 10.1145/3448975

Author

Bruel, Jean-Michel ; Ebersold, Sophie ; Galinier, Florian et al. / The Role of Formalism in System Requirements. In: ACM Computing Surveys. 2022 ; Vol. 54, No. 5. pp. 1-36.

BibTeX

@article{3dbba20eea154c979d67d7e1b8ac747d,
title = "The Role of Formalism in System Requirements",
abstract = "A major determinant of the quality of software systems is the quality of their requirements, which should be both understandable and precise. Most requirements are written in natural language, which is good for understandability but lacks precision. To make requirements precise, researchers have for years advocated the use of mathematics-based notations and methods, known as {"}formal.{"}Many exist, differing in their style, scope, and applicability. The present survey discusses some of the main formal approaches and compares them to informal methods. The analysis uses a set of nine complementary criteria, such as level of abstraction, tool availability, and traceability support. It classifies the approaches into five categories based on their principal style for specifying requirements: natural-language, semi-formal, automata/graphs, mathematical, and seamless (programming-language-based). It includes examples from all of these categories, altogether 21 different approaches, including for example SysML, Relax, Eiffel, Event-B, and Alloy. The review discusses a number of open questions, including seamlessness, the role of tools and education, and how to make industrial applications benefit more from the contributions of formal approaches.",
keywords = "Formal, requirement, seamless, software, specification",
author = "Jean-Michel Bruel and Sophie Ebersold and Florian Galinier and Manuel Mazzara and Alexandr Naumchev and Bertrand Meyer",
year = "2022",
month = jun,
day = "30",
doi = "10.1145/3448975",
language = "English",
volume = "54",
pages = "1--36",
journal = "ACM Computing Surveys",
issn = "0360-0300",
publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery",
number = "5",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Role of Formalism in System Requirements

AU - Bruel, Jean-Michel

AU - Ebersold, Sophie

AU - Galinier, Florian

AU - Mazzara, Manuel

AU - Naumchev, Alexandr

AU - Meyer, Bertrand

PY - 2022/6/30

Y1 - 2022/6/30

N2 - A major determinant of the quality of software systems is the quality of their requirements, which should be both understandable and precise. Most requirements are written in natural language, which is good for understandability but lacks precision. To make requirements precise, researchers have for years advocated the use of mathematics-based notations and methods, known as "formal."Many exist, differing in their style, scope, and applicability. The present survey discusses some of the main formal approaches and compares them to informal methods. The analysis uses a set of nine complementary criteria, such as level of abstraction, tool availability, and traceability support. It classifies the approaches into five categories based on their principal style for specifying requirements: natural-language, semi-formal, automata/graphs, mathematical, and seamless (programming-language-based). It includes examples from all of these categories, altogether 21 different approaches, including for example SysML, Relax, Eiffel, Event-B, and Alloy. The review discusses a number of open questions, including seamlessness, the role of tools and education, and how to make industrial applications benefit more from the contributions of formal approaches.

AB - A major determinant of the quality of software systems is the quality of their requirements, which should be both understandable and precise. Most requirements are written in natural language, which is good for understandability but lacks precision. To make requirements precise, researchers have for years advocated the use of mathematics-based notations and methods, known as "formal."Many exist, differing in their style, scope, and applicability. The present survey discusses some of the main formal approaches and compares them to informal methods. The analysis uses a set of nine complementary criteria, such as level of abstraction, tool availability, and traceability support. It classifies the approaches into five categories based on their principal style for specifying requirements: natural-language, semi-formal, automata/graphs, mathematical, and seamless (programming-language-based). It includes examples from all of these categories, altogether 21 different approaches, including for example SysML, Relax, Eiffel, Event-B, and Alloy. The review discusses a number of open questions, including seamlessness, the role of tools and education, and how to make industrial applications benefit more from the contributions of formal approaches.

KW - Formal

KW - requirement

KW - seamless

KW - software

KW - specification

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/c9fe265b-a6a3-32d9-86f3-23da392b66f7/

U2 - 10.1145/3448975

DO - 10.1145/3448975

M3 - Article

VL - 54

SP - 1

EP - 36

JO - ACM Computing Surveys

JF - ACM Computing Surveys

SN - 0360-0300

IS - 5

M1 - 93

ER -

ID: 65524299