APPLYING FORMAL SPECIFICATION TO SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT IN INDUSTRY

This paper reports experience gained in applying formal specification techniques to an existing transaction processing system. The system is the IBM Customer Information Control System (CICS), and the work has concentrated on specifying a number of modules of the CICS application programmer's interface. The uses of formal specification techniques with particular reference to their application to an existing piece of software are outlined. the specification process itself is described, and a sample specification presented. One of the main benefits of applying specification techniques to existing software is the questions that are raised about the system design and documentation during the specification process. Some samples of the problems that were identified by these questions are discussed. Problems with the specification techniques themselves, that were encountered in applying the techniques to a commercial transaction processing system are outlined