Formal Methods in Information Management System Specifications: A Case Study*

The formal specification of information management systems provide long term advantages in terms of systems devel-opment and maintenance. In this paper, algebraic specification techniques are used for the formal design specification of a library information management system. The derived specification has been used as a basis for the implementation of an object-oriented library information management system. The use of formal techniques in information system specifications greatly help the construction of easily verifiable system designs and lead to highly adaptable system implementations. The derived specification led to the easy development of class hierarchies. Also, it was noted that modifications and changes in the search criteria were easy to accommodate. I