Project summary
Our overall objective is the creation of a methodology and
supporting open tool platform for the cost effective rigorous
development of dependable complex software systems and services.
We focus on tackling complexity
• caused by the environment in which the software is to operate
• which comes from poorly conceived architectural structure.
Mastering complexity requires design techniques that support clear thinking
and rigorous validation and verification. Formal design methods (FM)
do so. Coping with complexity also requires architectures that are tolerant
of faults and unpredictable changes in environment. This is addressed
by fault tolerance (FT) design techniques.
We will develop a unified methodology combining FM with
FT design principles by using a systems of systems approach, where both
software and environment are modelled together.
We will tackle complex architectures: our systems approach will support
the construction of appropriate abstractions and provide techniques for
their structured refinement and decomposition.
We will ensure cost effectiveness, the methods and platform will support
reuse of existing software. We will thus extend existing FM with generic
mechanisms to support component reuse and composition.
Tool support for construction, manipulation and analysis of models is
crucial and we will concentrate on a comprehensive tool platform which
is openly available and openly extendable and
has the potential to set a European standard for industrial FM tools.
The methods and platform will be validated and assessed through industrial
case studies.
The novel aspects of this proposal are the pursuit of a systems approach,
the combination of FM with FT techniques, the development of FM support
for component reuse and composition and the provision of an open and
extensible tools platform for formal development. In particular, we believe
that the open tools platform will have a significant impact on future
research in FM tools and will encourage greater industrial uptake.
The open source tool kernel development is conducted within
SourceForge.net
(the world's largest Open Source software development website) -
see <http://rodin-b-sharp.sourceforge.net/>
Project Start: September 1, 2004
Completion: August 31, 2007
The Project Coordinator and the main contact point is Alexander
Romanovsky
(University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.)
alexander.romanovsky@ncl.ac.uk
|