Abstract
In this paper, we report on the use of theAlbert II requirements specification language through the handling of the Generalized Railroad Crossing case study. This formal language is based on an ontology of concepts used for capturing requirements inherent in real-time, distributed systems. Because of itsnaturalness, the language supports a direct mapping of customers’ informal needs onto formal statements, without having to introduce artificial elements. The language is founded on a formal framework (real-time temporal logic) which supports the reasoning process of the analyst during the elaboration of the specification. Such support for the reasoning is illustrated in the context of a goal-oriented approach adopted for the elaboration of the case study.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Spivey JM. The Z notation—a reference manual. Prentice-Hall International, 1989
Guttag JV, Horning JJ and Wing JM. Larch in five easy pieces. Technical Report 5, Digital systems research center, Palo Alto CA, July 1985
Harel D, Lachover H, Naamad A, Penuli A, Politi M, Sherman R and Shtul-Trauring A. STATEMATE: a working environment for the development of complex reactive systems. In Proc. of the 10th International Conference on Software Engineering—ICSE’88, pages 396–406, Singapore, April 11–15, 1988. IEEE
Dubois E, Hagelstein J, van Lamsweerde A, Orejas F, Souquières J and Wodon P. A guided tour through the ICARUS project. Software Engineering Notes, 20(2):28–33, 1995. Available at ftp://ftp.info.fundp.ac.be/publications/RP/RP-95-017.ps.Z
2RARE (2 real applications for requirements engineering), esprit project programme (contract number 20.424), November 1995. Information available at http://www.info.fundp.ac.be/≈phe/2rare.html
Bubenko JA. Information modeling in the context of system development. In S.H. Lavington, editor, Information Processing 80, pages 395–411. North-Holland, 1980
Greenspan SJ, Borgida A and Mylopoulos J. A requirements modeling language. Information Systems, 11(1): 9–23, 1986
Feather MS. Language support for the specification and development of composite systems. ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems, 9(2):198–234, April 1987
Du Bois P. The Albert II Language: On the Design and the Use of a Formal Specification Language for Requirements Analysis. PhD thesis, Computer Science Department, University of Namur, Namur (Belgique), September 1995. Available at http://www.fun.cediti.be/≈pdu/thesispr-uk.html
Borgida A, Mylopoulos J and Reiter R. On the frame problem in procedure specification. IEEE Transactions in Software Engineering, SE-21 (10), October 1995
Heitmeyer CL, Jeffords RD and Labaw BG. A benchmark for comparing different approaches for specifying and verifying real-time systems. In Proc. of the 10th International Workshop on Real-Time Operating Systems and Software, May 1993
Jackson M and Zave P. Deriving specifications from requirements: An example. In Proc. of the 17th International Conference on Software Engineering—ICSE’95, pages 15–24, Seattle WA, April 23–30, 1995. ACM Press
Gotel O and Finkelstein A. Contribution structures. In Proc. of the IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering—Re’95, pages 100–107, York (UK), March 27–29, 1995. IEEE Computer Society Press
Heitmeyer CL and Lynch N. The generalized railroad crossing: A case study in formal verification of real-time systems. In Proc. of the IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium, San Juan, Puerto Rico, December 7–9, 1994
Dubois E. Logical support for reasoning about the specification and the elaboration of requirements. In The role of artificial intelligence in databases and information systems, pages 28–48, Guangzhou (China), July 1988. IFIP WG2.6/W68.1
Dardenne A, van Lamsweerde A and Fickas A. Goaldirected requirements acquisition. Science of Computer Programming, 20:3–50, 1993
Saake G, Jungclaus R and Hartmann T. Application modelling in heterogeneous environments using an object specification language. In Proc. of the International Conference on Intelligent and Cooperative Systems—ICICIS’93. IEEE CS Press, 1993
Wieringa R. LCM and MCN: Specification of a control system using dynamic logic and process algebra. In Lewerentz C, Lindner T (eds). Case Study Production Cell—A Comparative Study of Formal Software Development, Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer-Verlag, 1994.
Jackson M. System Development. Prentice Hall, 1983
Armstrong J and Barroca L. Specification and verification of reactive system behaviour: the railroad crossing example. Real-time Systems, 10(2): 143–178, March 1996.
Crow J, Owre S, Rushby J, Shankar N and Srivas M. A tutorial introduction to PVS. Technical report, Computer Science Lab, SRI International, Menlo Park CA, April 1995
Skakkebæk JU and Shankar N. Towards a duration calculus proof assistant in PVS. In Proc. of the 3rd International School and Symposium on Formal Techniques in Real Time and Fault Tolerant Systems, pages 660–679, Lubeck (Germany), September 19–23, 1994. LNCS 863, Springer-Verlag
Havelund K and Shankar N. Expirements in theorem proving and model checking for protocol verification. In Proc. of the FME’96 Symposium on Industrial Benefit and Advances in Formal Methods, Oxford (UK), March 18–22, 1996
Dubois E, Hagelstein J and Rifaut A. A. formal language for the requirements engineering of computer systems. In Andr’e Thayse, editor, From natural language processing to logic for expert systems, chapter 6, Wiley, 1991
Morzenti A and San Pietro P. Object-oriented logic specifications of time critical systems. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, 3(1):56–98, January 1994
Kang KC and Ko K-I. PARTS: A temporal logic-based real-time software specification and verification method. In: Proc. of the 17th International Conference on Software Engineering—ICSE’95, pages 169–176, Seattle WA, April 23–30, 1995 ACM Press
Ostroff JS. Formal methods for the specification and design of real-time safety critical systems. The Journal of Systems and Software, pages 33–60, April 1992
Yu E, Du Bois P, Dubois E and Mylopoulos J. From organization models to system requirements—a “cooperating agents” approach. In Proc. of the Third International Conference on Cooperative Information Systems—CoopIS-95, Vienna (Austria), May 9–12, 1995. University of Toronto Press inc.
Jarke M, Gallersdorfer R, Jeusfeld MA, Staudt M and Eherer S. ConceptBase—a deductive object base for meta data management. Journal of Intelligent Information Systems, 4(2):167–192, 1995
Dubois E, Du Bois P and Dubru F. Animating formal requirements specifications of cooperative information systems. In Proc. of the Second International Conference on Cooperative Information Systems—CoopIS-94, pages 101–112. Toronto (Canada), May 17–20, 1994, University of Toronto Press inc. Available at ftp://ftp.info.fundp.ac/be/publications/RP/RP-94-009.ps.Z
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bois, P.D., Dubois, E. & Zeippen, JM. On the use of a formal requirements engineering language: The Generalized Railroad Crossing Problem. Requirements Eng 2, 171–183 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02745370
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02745370