Formalizing requirements in formal specifications is an effective way to deepen the understanding of the envisioned system and reduce ambiguities in the original requirements. However, it requires mathematical sophistication and considerable experience in using formal notations, which remains a challenge to many practitioners. To handle this challenge, this paper describes a pattern-based approach to facilitate the formalization of requirements. In this approach, a pattern system is pre-defined to guide requirements formalization where each pattern provides a specific solution for formalizing one kind of function into a formal expression. All of the patterns are classified and organized into a hierarchical structure according to the functions they can be used to formalize. The distinct characteristic of our approach is that all of the patterns are stored on computer as knowledge for creating effective guidance to facilitate the developer in requirements formalization; they are “understood” only by the computer but transparent to the developer. We also describe a prototype tool that supports the approach. It adopts Hierarchical Finite State Machine (HFSM) to represent the pattern knowledge and implements an algorithm for applying it to assist requirements formalization. Two experiments on the tool are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.
Xi WANG
Hosei University
Shaoying LIU
Hosei University
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Xi WANG, Shaoying LIU, "Computer-Aided Formalization of Requirements Based on Patterns" in IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information,
vol. E97-D, no. 2, pp. 198-212, February 2014, doi: 10.1587/transinf.E97.D.198.
Abstract: Formalizing requirements in formal specifications is an effective way to deepen the understanding of the envisioned system and reduce ambiguities in the original requirements. However, it requires mathematical sophistication and considerable experience in using formal notations, which remains a challenge to many practitioners. To handle this challenge, this paper describes a pattern-based approach to facilitate the formalization of requirements. In this approach, a pattern system is pre-defined to guide requirements formalization where each pattern provides a specific solution for formalizing one kind of function into a formal expression. All of the patterns are classified and organized into a hierarchical structure according to the functions they can be used to formalize. The distinct characteristic of our approach is that all of the patterns are stored on computer as knowledge for creating effective guidance to facilitate the developer in requirements formalization; they are “understood” only by the computer but transparent to the developer. We also describe a prototype tool that supports the approach. It adopts Hierarchical Finite State Machine (HFSM) to represent the pattern knowledge and implements an algorithm for applying it to assist requirements formalization. Two experiments on the tool are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.
URL: https://global.ieice.org/en_transactions/information/10.1587/transinf.E97.D.198/_p
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@ARTICLE{e97-d_2_198,
author={Xi WANG, Shaoying LIU, },
journal={IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information},
title={Computer-Aided Formalization of Requirements Based on Patterns},
year={2014},
volume={E97-D},
number={2},
pages={198-212},
abstract={Formalizing requirements in formal specifications is an effective way to deepen the understanding of the envisioned system and reduce ambiguities in the original requirements. However, it requires mathematical sophistication and considerable experience in using formal notations, which remains a challenge to many practitioners. To handle this challenge, this paper describes a pattern-based approach to facilitate the formalization of requirements. In this approach, a pattern system is pre-defined to guide requirements formalization where each pattern provides a specific solution for formalizing one kind of function into a formal expression. All of the patterns are classified and organized into a hierarchical structure according to the functions they can be used to formalize. The distinct characteristic of our approach is that all of the patterns are stored on computer as knowledge for creating effective guidance to facilitate the developer in requirements formalization; they are “understood” only by the computer but transparent to the developer. We also describe a prototype tool that supports the approach. It adopts Hierarchical Finite State Machine (HFSM) to represent the pattern knowledge and implements an algorithm for applying it to assist requirements formalization. Two experiments on the tool are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.},
keywords={},
doi={10.1587/transinf.E97.D.198},
ISSN={1745-1361},
month={February},}
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TY - JOUR
TI - Computer-Aided Formalization of Requirements Based on Patterns
T2 - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
SP - 198
EP - 212
AU - Xi WANG
AU - Shaoying LIU
PY - 2014
DO - 10.1587/transinf.E97.D.198
JO - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
SN - 1745-1361
VL - E97-D
IS - 2
JA - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
Y1 - February 2014
AB - Formalizing requirements in formal specifications is an effective way to deepen the understanding of the envisioned system and reduce ambiguities in the original requirements. However, it requires mathematical sophistication and considerable experience in using formal notations, which remains a challenge to many practitioners. To handle this challenge, this paper describes a pattern-based approach to facilitate the formalization of requirements. In this approach, a pattern system is pre-defined to guide requirements formalization where each pattern provides a specific solution for formalizing one kind of function into a formal expression. All of the patterns are classified and organized into a hierarchical structure according to the functions they can be used to formalize. The distinct characteristic of our approach is that all of the patterns are stored on computer as knowledge for creating effective guidance to facilitate the developer in requirements formalization; they are “understood” only by the computer but transparent to the developer. We also describe a prototype tool that supports the approach. It adopts Hierarchical Finite State Machine (HFSM) to represent the pattern knowledge and implements an algorithm for applying it to assist requirements formalization. Two experiments on the tool are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.
ER -