Chapter 6 - Application of Formal Specifications and Runtime Monitoring to the Ballistic Missile Defense Project

Abstract

This chapter discusses the applications of formal specifications and runtime monitoring to the Ballistic Missile Defense Project. A special team was devoted to the definition, execution, and management of a lightweight formal specification and runtime monitoring approach. The approach involved defining a set of specifications within natural language. Another step in approach was to express the specifications formally, within the form of a Harel statechart. Next, stimulate the formal specification, and verify proper statechart behavior. Next step is to instrument the system-under-test (SUT) in order to publish metrics (events) to the formal specification statechart. Stimulate the system-under-test and monitor the formal specifications. Analyze discrepancies among the implementation and formal specifications, and refine system and/or specifications accordingly. The three tool sets employed in order to support the formal specification and verification approach were StateRover, Eclipse, and JUNIT. The chapter describes processes and strategies accompanying each of the steps within the formal specification and verification approach.