Questions and Answers About Ten Formal Methods

Abstract

An abstract model of an industrial distributed data base application has been studied using process based, state based, and queueing theory based methods. The methods supported by graphical notations and/or integrated development environments were found to be easiest to work with. The methods supported by model checkers were the most successful in obtaining relevant information about the application. Applying a number of different methods to study one particular model encourages a problem to be viewed from different angles. This gives complementary information about the model. We report on a variety of problems of the model found through various routes. Our main conclusion is that asking experts to apply different methods and tools at a sufficiently abstract level can be done effectively revealing a broad range of information about the considered application.