Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
SpringerLink
Log in

Industrial Experiences with Runtime Verification of Financial Transaction Systems: Lessons Learnt and Standing Challenges

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Lectures on Runtime Verification

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 10457))

Abstract

The chapter will focus on experiences the authors had in applying runtime verification in industrial settings, in particular on financial transaction systems. We discuss how runtime verification can be introduced in the software development lifecycle and who are the people to be involved and when. Furthermore, we investigate what kind of properties have been found useful in practise and how these were monitored to keep intrusion to a minimum. Next, we describe two significant case studies which have been successfully carried out in the past, and conclude by outlining a number of challenges which we believe still need to be addressed for runtime verification to become more mainstream in industrial settings.

The Open Payments Ecosystem has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant number 666363.

Project GOMTA financed by the Malta Council for Science & Technology through the National Research & Innovation Programme 2013.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Due to non-disclosure agreements, one of the companies cannot be named. However, it is worth noting that both companies had a R&D team of 50–100 persons.

  2. 2.

    https://www.um.edu.mt/ict/cs/research/projects/gomta.

  3. 3.

    https://www.openpaymentsecosystem.eu.

  4. 4.

    Other than software events, one may for example capture the state of the hardware, or perform regular sampling of the variables. However, in this chapter we focus on the more commonly used software events.

  5. 5.

    Users all had an undergraduate degree which covered automata and they did not have full formal training in using formal logics such as LTL, they were comfortable using automata.

References

  1. Abela, P., Colombo, C., Pace, G.J.: Offline runtime verification with real-time properties: a case study. In: University of Malta Workshop in ICT (WICT 2009) (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Artho, C., Barringer, H., Goldberg, A., Havelund, K., Khurshid, S., Lowry, M.R., Pasareanu, C.S., Rosu, G., Sen, K., Visser, W., Washington, R.: Combining test case generation and runtime verification. Theor. Comput. Sci. 336(2–3), 209–234 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcs.2004.11.007

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. Artho, C., Biere, A.: Combined static and dynamic analysis. Electr. Notes Theor. Comput. Sci. 131, 3–14 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.entcs.2005.01.018

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Azzopardi, S., Colombo, C., Pace, G.: A model-based approach to combining static and dynamic verification techniques. In: Margaria, T., Steffen, B. (eds.) ISoLA 2016, Part I. LNCS, vol. 9952, pp. 416–430. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47166-2_29

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  5. Azzopardi, S., Colombo, C., Pace, G.J., Vella, B.: Compliance checking in the open payments ecosystem. In: De Nicola, R., Kühn, E. (eds.) SEFM 2016. LNCS, vol. 9763, pp. 337–343. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41591-8_23

    Google Scholar 

  6. Baresi, L., Ghezzi, C.: The disappearing boundary between development-time and run-time. In: Proceedings of the FSE/SDP Workshop on Future of Software Engineering Research, FoSER 2010, pp. 17–22. ACM, New York (2010). http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1882362.1882367

  7. Bartocci, E., Grosu, R., Karmarkar, A., Smolka, S.A., Stoller, S.D., Zadok, E., Seyster, J.: Adaptive runtime verification. In: Qadeer, S., Tasiran, S. (eds.) RV 2012. LNCS, vol. 7687, pp. 168–182. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35632-2_18

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  8. Berkovich, S., Bonakdarpour, B., Fischmeister, S.: GPU-based runtime verification. In: 27th IEEE International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing, IPDPS 2013, Cambridge, MA, USA, 20–24 May 2013 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1109/IPDPS.2013.105

  9. Bodden, E., Hendren, L., Lam, P., Lhoták, O., Naeem, N.A.: Collaborative runtime verification with tracematches. J. Log. Comput. 20(3), 707–723 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1093/logcom/exn077

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  10. Bodden, E., Hendren, L., Lhoták, O.: A staged static program analysis to improve the performance of runtime monitoring. In: Ernst, E. (ed.) ECOOP 2007. LNCS, vol. 4609, pp. 525–549. Springer, Heidelberg (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73589-2_25

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  11. Bodden, E., Lam, P., Hendren, L.: Clara: a framework for partially evaluating finite-state runtime monitors ahead of time. In: Barringer, H., et al. (eds.) RV 2010. LNCS, vol. 6418, pp. 183–197. Springer, Heidelberg (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16612-9_15

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  12. Calafato, A., Colombo, C., Pace, G.J.: A controlled natural language for tax fraud detection. In: Davis, B., Pace, G.J.J., Wyner, A. (eds.) CNL 2016. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 9767, pp. 1–12. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41498-0_1

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  13. Cauchi, A., Colombo, C., Francalanza, A., Micallef, M., Pace, G.J.: Using gherkin to extract tests and monitors for safer medical device interaction design. In: Proceedings of the 8th ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems, EICS 2016, Brussels, Belgium, 21–24 June 2016, pp. 275–280. ACM, New York (2016). http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2933242.2935868

  14. Centonze, P., Flynn, R.J., Pistoia, M.: Combining static and dynamic analysis for automatic identification of precise access-control policies. In: 23rd Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC 2007), Miami Beach, Florida, USA, 10–14 December 2007, pp. 292–303 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1109/ACSAC.2007.14

  15. Chimento, J.M., Ahrendt, W., Pace, G.J., Schneider, G.: StaRVOOrS: a tool for combined static and runtime verification of Java. In: Bartocci, E., Majumdar, R. (eds.) RV 2015. LNCS, vol. 9333, pp. 297–305. Springer, Cham (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23820-3_21

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  16. Chircop, L., Colombo, C., Micallef, M.: Exploring the link between automatic specification inference and test suite quality (2017). Submitted for publication

    Google Scholar 

  17. Colombo, C., Dimech, G., Francalanza, A.: Investigating instrumentation techniques for ESB runtime verification. In: Calinescu, R., Rumpe, B. (eds.) SEFM 2015. LNCS, vol. 9276, pp. 99–107. Springer, Cham (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22969-0_7

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  18. Colombo, C., Francalanza, A., Gatt, R.: Elarva: a monitoring tool for erlang. In: Khurshid, S., Sen, K. (eds.) RV 2011. LNCS, vol. 7186, pp. 370–374. Springer, Heidelberg (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29860-8_29

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  19. Colombo, C., Francalanza, A., Mizzi, R., Pace, G.J.: polyLarva: runtime verification with configurable resource-aware monitoring boundaries. In: Eleftherakis, G., Hinchey, M., Holcombe, M. (eds.) SEFM 2012. LNCS, vol. 7504, pp. 218–232. Springer, Heidelberg (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33826-7_15

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  20. Colombo, C., Grech, J.-P., Pace, G.J.: A controlled natural language for business intelligence monitoring. In: Biemann, C., Handschuh, S., Freitas, A., Meziane, F., Métais, E. (eds.) NLDB 2015. LNCS, vol. 9103, pp. 300–306. Springer, Cham (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19581-0_27

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  21. Colombo, C., Pace, G.J.: Fast-forward runtime monitoring — an industrial case study. In: Qadeer, S., Tasiran, S. (eds.) RV 2012. LNCS, vol. 7687, pp. 214–228. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35632-2_22

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  22. Colombo, C., Pace, G.J., Abela, P.: Compensation-aware runtime monitoring. In: Barringer, H., et al. (eds.) RV 2010. LNCS, vol. 6418, pp. 214–228. Springer, Heidelberg (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16612-9_17

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  23. Colombo, C., Pace, G.J., Abela, P.: Safer asynchronous runtime monitoring using compensations. Formal Methods Syst. Des. 41(3), 269–294 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10703-012-0142-8

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  24. Colombo, C., Pace, G.J., Schneider, G.: Dynamic event-based runtime monitoring of real-time and contextual properties. In: Cofer, D., Fantechi, A. (eds.) FMICS 2008. LNCS, vol. 5596, pp. 135–149. Springer, Heidelberg (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03240-0_13

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  25. Colombo, C., Pace, G.J., Schneider, G.: LARVA – safer monitoring of real-time Java programs (tool paper). In: Seventh IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering and Formal Methods, SEFM 2009, Hanoi, Vietnam, 23–27 November 2009, pp. 33–37 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1109/SEFM.2009.13

  26. Falzon, K., Pace, G.J.: Combining testing and runtime verification techniques. In: Machado, R.J., Maciel, R.S.P., Rubin, J., Botterweck, G. (eds.) MOMPES 2012. LNCS, vol. 7706, pp. 38–57. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38209-3_3

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  27. Giannakopoulou, D., Pasareanu, C.S., Lowry, M., Washington, R.: Lifecycle verification of the NASA ames K9 rover executive. Technical report, NASA (2004). http://ti.arc.nasa.gov/publications

  28. Hoare, C.: Programming is an engineering profession. In: Wallis, P. (ed.) State of the Art Report 11, No. 3: Software Engineering, pp. 77–84. Pergamon/Infotech (1983). Also Oxford PRG Monograph No. 27; and IEEE Softw. 1(2)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Hu, R., Yoshida, N.: Hybrid session verification through endpoint API generation. In: Stevens, P., Wąsowski, A. (eds.) FASE 2016. LNCS, vol. 9633, pp. 401–418. Springer, Heidelberg (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-49665-7_24

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  30. Jaksic, S., Bartocci, E., Grosu, R., Kloibhofer, R., Nguyen, T., Nickovic, D.: From signal temporal logic to FPGA monitors. In: 13th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Formal Methods and Models for Codesign, MEMOCODE 2015, Austin, TX, USA, 21–23 September 2015, pp. 218–227 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1109/MEMCOD.2015.7340489

  31. Kiczales, G., Lamping, J., Mendhekar, A., Maeda, C., Lopes, C., Loingtier, J.-M., Irwin, J.: Aspect-oriented programming. In: Akşit, M., Matsuoka, S. (eds.) ECOOP 1997. LNCS, vol. 1241, pp. 220–242. Springer, Heidelberg (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0053381

    Google Scholar 

  32. Kuhn, T.: A survey and classification of controlled natural languages. CoRR abs/1507.01701 (2015). http://arxiv.org/abs/1507.01701

  33. Medhat, R., Bonakdarpour, B., Fischmeister, S., Joshi, Y.: Accelerated runtime verification of LTL specifications with counting semantics. In: Falcone, Y., Sánchez, C. (eds.) RV 2016. LNCS, vol. 10012, pp. 251–267. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46982-9_16

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  34. Pnueli, A.: The temporal logic of programs. In: 18th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, Providence, Rhode Island, USA, 31 October–1 November 1977, pp. 46–57 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1109/SFCS.1977.32

  35. Smaragdakis, Y., Csallner, C.: Combining static and dynamic reasoning for bug detection. In: Gurevich, Y., Meyer, B. (eds.) TAP 2007. LNCS, vol. 4454, pp. 1–16. Springer, Heidelberg (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73770-4_1

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  36. Tamura, G., et al.: Towards practical runtime verification and validation of self-adaptive software systems. In: de Lemos, R., Giese, H., Müller, H.A., Shaw, M. (eds.) Software Engineering for Self-Adaptive Systems II. LNCS, vol. 7475, pp. 108–132. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35813-5_5

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  37. Wonisch, D., Schremmer, A., Wehrheim, H.: Zero overhead runtime monitoring. In: Hierons, R.M., Merayo, M.G., Bravetti, M. (eds.) SEFM 2013. LNCS, vol. 8137, pp. 244–258. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40561-7_17

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Malta, Msida, Malta

    Christian Colombo & Gordon J. Pace

Authors
  1. Christian Colombo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gordon J. Pace
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christian Colombo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. TU Wien, Vienna, Austria

    Ezio Bartocci

  2. Université Grenoble Alpes, Inria, Laboratoire d’Informatique de Grenoble, Grenoble, France

    Yliès Falcone

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Colombo, C., Pace, G.J. (2018). Industrial Experiences with Runtime Verification of Financial Transaction Systems: Lessons Learnt and Standing Challenges. In: Bartocci, E., Falcone, Y. (eds) Lectures on Runtime Verification. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10457. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75632-5_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75632-5_7

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-75631-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-75632-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation