Formal Methods in Requirements Phase of SDLC

Abstract

there is an increasing demand for more rigorous and systematic approaches to develop security critical software systems across the globe. The complexity of the software system is rapidly raising due to the inclusion of properties like security and reliability. The process of software development complicates with the raising complexity of the software system. As a result, formal methods are currently used to model complex security critical systems. Literature reveals that formal methods can be applied at various points through the development process. Their tools can provide automated support, needed for checking completeness, traceability, verifiability, reusability and inconsistency management of requirement specification, which is the backbone of entire SDLC. Accordingly, there appears a need for a critical review of these formal methods. The paper presents a brief discussion on various formal methods particularly Z-method, B-method, VDM, OBJ, Larch and Communicating Sequential Process etc. along with their strengths and weaknesses followed by a comparative study on the basis of the review results. The present research work may help the software developers to provide their recommendations for using formal methods at different stages of software development and particularly for requirements phase, based on the specific requirements of an organization.