Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Lessons Learned from a Successful Implementation of Formal Methods in an Industrial Project

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Book cover FME 2003: Formal Methods (FME 2003)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2805))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract.

This paper describes the lessons we learned over a thirteen year period while helping to develop the shutdown systems for the nuclear generating station at Darlington, Ontario, Canada. We begin with a brief description of the project and then show how we modified processes and notations developed in the academic community so that they are acceptable for use in industry. We highlight some of the topics that proved to be particularly challenging and that would benefit from more in-depth study without the pressure of project deadlines.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Saiedian, H. (ed.): An invitation to formal methods. IEEE Computer, 16–30 (April 1996)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Heninger, K.L.: Specifying software requirements for complex systems: New techniques and their applications. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 6, 2–13 (1980)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Heitmeyer, C., Kirby, J., Labaw, B., Bharadwaj, R.: SCR*: A toolset for specifying and analyzing software requirements. In: Y. Vardi, M. (ed.) CAV 1998. LNCS, vol. 1427, pp. 526–531. Springer, Heidelberg (1998)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  4. Parnas, D.L.: Software design. In: Hoffman, D., Weiss, D. (eds.) Software Fundamentals: Collected Papers by David L. Parnas, pp. 137–142. Addison-Wesley, Reading (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Archinoff, G.H., Hohendorf, R.J., Wassyng, A., Quigley, B., Borsch, M.R.: Verification of the shutdown system software at the Darlington nuclear generating station. In: International Conference on Control and Instrumentation in Nuclear Installations, Glasgow, UK, The Institution of Nuclear Engineers (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Parnas, D.: On the criteria to be used in decomposing systems into modules. Communications of the ACM 15, 1053–1058 (1972)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Joannou, P., et al.: Standard for Software Engineering of Safety Critical Software. CANDU Computer Systems Engineering Centre of Excellence Standard CE-1001- STD Rev. 1 (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  8. McDougall, J., Lee, J.: Procedure for the Software Design Description for Safety Critical Software. CANDU Computer Systems Engineering Centre of Excellence Procedure CE-1002-PROC Rev. 1 (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Moum, G.: Procedure for the Systematic Design Verification of Safety Critical Software. CANDU Computer Systems Engineering Centre of Excellence Procedure CE-1003-PROC Rev. 1 (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Wassyng, A.: Darlington NGD Shutdown System Trip Computer Software Redesign Project, SDS1, Trip Computer Design Requirements Procedure. Technical Report NK38-MAN-68200-003, Rev. 04, Ontario Hydro (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Wassyng, A.: Darlington NGD Shutdown System Trip Computer Software Redesign Project, SDS1, Trip Computer Design Description Procedure. Technical Report NK38-MAN-68200-001, Rev. 03, Ontario Hydro (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Mills, H.D.: Stepwise refinement and verification in box-structured systems. Computer 21, 23–36 (1988)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Janicki, R., Parnas, D.L., Zucker, J.: Tabular representations in relational documents. In: Brink, C., Kahl, W., Schmidt, G. (eds.) Relational Methods in Computer Science, pp. 184–196. Springer, New York (1997)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  14. Parnas, D.L., Madey, J.: Functional documents for computer systems. Science of Computer Programming 25, 41–61 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Lawford, M., McDougall, J., Froebel, P., Moum, G.: Practical application of functional and relational methods for the specification and verification of safety critical software. In: Rus, T. (ed.) AMAST 2000. LNCS, vol. 1816, pp. 73–88. Springer, Heidelberg (2000)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  16. Viola, M.: Ontario Hydro’s experience with new methods for engineering safety critical software. In: SAFECOMP 1995: The 14th International Conference on Computer Safety, Reliability and Security, Belgirate, Italy, pp. 283–298. Springer, Heidelberg (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Owre, S., Rushby, J., Shankar, N., von Henke, F.: Formal verification for faulttolerant architectures: Prolegomena to the design of PVS. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 21, 107–125 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Lawford, M., Froebel, P., Moum, G.: Application of tabular methods to the specification and verification of a nuclear reactor shutdown system. Accepted for publication in (May 2002) (to appear), http://www.cas.mcmaster.ca/~lawford/papers/

  19. Knight, J.C., Hanks, K.S., Travis, S.R.: Tool support for production use of formal techniques. In: 12th International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE 2001), Hong Kong, China. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Heitmeyer, C., Kirby Jr., J., Labaw, B., Archer, M., Bharadwaj, R.: Using abstraction and model checking to detect safety violations in requirements specifications. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 24, 927–948 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Crow, J., Di Vito, B.L.: Formalizing Space Shuttle software requirements: Four case studies. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology 7, 296–332 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Hall, A., Chapman, R.: Correctness by construction: Developing a commercial secure system. IEEE Software, 18–25 (January/February 2002)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Computing and Software, Faculty of Engineering, McMaster University, L8S 4L7, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

    Alan Wassyng & Mark Lawford

Authors
  1. Alan Wassyng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mark Lawford
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Communication Engineering, Graduate School of Information Science and Electrical Engineering, Kyushu University, 6-10-1-Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, 812-8581, Fukuoka, Japan

    Keijiro Araki

  2. Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell’Informazione “A. Faedo”, ISTI - CNR, Pisa, Italy

    Stefania Gnesi

  3. Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

    Dino Mandrioli

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Wassyng, A., Lawford, M. (2003). Lessons Learned from a Successful Implementation of Formal Methods in an Industrial Project. In: Araki, K., Gnesi, S., Mandrioli, D. (eds) FME 2003: Formal Methods. FME 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2805. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45236-2_9

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45236-2_9

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-40828-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45236-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation