arrow
Return

Automated Abstractions for Contract Validation

delete2012-01-01
delete27
delete
OA
AI
G
Guido de Caso *
V
Vı́ctor Braberman
D
Diego Garbervetsky
S
Sebastián Uchitel
DOI:10.1109/TSE.2010.98delete
deleteOriginal
deleteShare
deleteSave
View PDF
Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
Pre/postcondition-based specifications are commonplace in a variety of software engineering activities that range from requirements through to design and implementation. The fragmented nature of these specifications can hinder validation as it is difficult to understand if the specifications for the various operations fit together well. In this paper, we propose a novel technique for automatically constructing abstractions in the form of behavior models from pre/postcondition-based specifications. Abstraction techniques have been used successfully for addressing the complexity of formal artifacts in software engineering; however, the focus has been, up to now, on abstractions for verification. Our aim is abstraction for validation and hence, different and novel trade-offs between precision and tractability are required. More specifically, in this paper, we define and study enabledness-preserving abstractions, that is, models in which concrete states are grouped according to the set of operations that they enable. The abstraction results in a finite model that is intuitive to validate and which facilitates tracing back to the specification for debugging. The paper also reports on the application of the approach to two industrial strength protocol specifications in which concerns were identified.
Keywords:
Requirements/specifications
validation
automated abstraction
AI Summary

AI Summary

Key information extracted from the uploaded paper, including a brief overview, abstract, background, key highlights, visual analysis, and future outlook.

Journal

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering cover
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
IF:
5.6
Papers:
2.8K
Citations:
1.1W

Organization

U
University of Buenos Aires
Scholars:
2.2W
Papers: 1.3W
Citations: 14