Home // International Journal On Advances in Intelligent Systems, volume 5, numbers 1 and 2, 2012 // View article

Believing Software: A Method of Practical Proof for Software Engineering

Authors:
Jerry Overton

Keywords: Consensus, Proof, Software Engineering, Software Design Pattern, Practical Formal Method, POAD Theory

Abstract:
For years, software engineers have tried to achieve the same collective confidence in their software specifications that mathematicians, by way of proof, have in their theorems. Most attempts have been rooted in deduction and have produced methods that are too difficult to use in practice. By borrowing from mathematics its methods of recording, communicating, and scrutinizing arguments instead of its methods of deduction, we introduce a method practical proof in software engineering. The result of this work is a cost-effective method for getting consensus among practicing software engineers about the adequacy of a real-world software design.

Pages: 135 to 144

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2012. Used with permission.

Publication date: June 30, 2012

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-2679