Traceability-Based Formal Specification Inspection

Abstract

Transforming informal specifications to formal specifications is an effective approach to clarifying user's requirements. However, how to keep the consistency between the informal specification and the formal specification is a major challenge. In this paper, we propose an inspection method for verifying whether all requirements described in an informal specification are formalized in the corresponding formal specification. Inspection is a static analysis technique based upon a checklist containing questions that should be answered. Our proposed inspection method advocates the principle that the checklist is created based on the trace ability of specifications and animation is used as a reading technique for checking through the formal specification. The trace ability reflects connections between informal and formal specifications, which can facilitate the inspector to check whether all requirements have been realized. The animation provides an intuitive way to guide the inspector in reading the formal specification. We use a case study to demonstrate how an inspection is performed.