A Constructive Framework for Partial Specification

Welcome to the reception page of the Constructive Framework for Partial Specification project. It is an EPSRC funded research project at the University of Kent at Canterbury (UKC) which ran from October 2000 to October 2003.

The project built on results obtained in the successfully completed project "Cross Viewpoint Consistency in Open Distributed Processing" and its follow on, OpenViews, by the same investigators. The focus in this project is on substantiating incidental techniques for viewpoint consistency and unification developed in those projects, by investigating categorical underpinnings for them.

These pages provide the latest information on the Constructive Framework for Partial Specification project and will be regularly updated throughout the project. The complete project proposal is also available.

The project is now completed, and was rated as Tending to Outstanding. See the final report.

Objectives

The aim of this project is to provide a general, practical and constructive framework for the composition of partial specifications which together describe an envisaged system.

To this aim we will seek an integration of the general categorical framework used in algebraic specification, and the practical and constructive approach for viewpoints developed in the Consistency project (EPSRC GR/K13035).

Specifically, building on our existing work in this area, we will:

• develop a categorical framework for partial specification;
• instantiate this framework with formal notations, e.g. Z and process algebra;
• investigate the compositional properties of refinement relations that can be derived from the framework;
• use a subset of UML to evaluate the framework in an area where refinement and consistency are not as well understood.

Investigators

The following people are involved in A Constructive Framework for Partial Specification:

• Eerke Boiten (principal investigator)
• John Derrick
• Marius Bujorianu (research associate)

Contact

For more information about this project please contact Eerke Boiten (e-mail: E.A.Boiten@kent.ac.uk).

Publications

• Towards Correspondence Carrying Specifications. Marius Bujorianu and Eerke Boiten. In AMAST 2004, LNCS, July 2004.
• Integration of Specification Languages Using Viewpoints. Marius Bujorianu. In E.A. Boiten, J. Derrick and G. Smith, editors, Integrated Formal Methods, LNCS 2999, pages 421-440, April 2004.
• Relational concurrent refinement. John Derrick and Eerke Boiten. Formal Aspects of Computing, 15(2):182-214, November 2003.
• Exploring UML refinement through unification. E.A. Boiten and M.C. Bujorianu. In J. J"urjens, B. Rumpe, R. France, and E.B. Fernandez, editors, Critical Systems Development with UML - Proceedings of the UML'03 workshop, number TUM-I0323, pages 47-62. Technische Universit"at M"unchen, September 2003.
• A relational framework for the integration of specifications. Eerke Boiten and John Derrick. Journal of Integrated Design and Process Science, 7(3):39-48, September 2003.
• A framework for UML consistency. John Derrick, David Akehurst, and Eerke Boiten. In L. Kuzniarz, G. Reggio, J. L. Sourrouille, and Z. Huzar, editors, <<UML>> 2002 Workshop on Consistency Problems in UML-based Software Development, pages 30-45, October 2002.
• A formal framework for viewpoint consistency. H. Bowman, M.W.A. Steen, E.A. Boiten, and J. Derrick. Formal Methods in System Design, 21:111-166, September 2002.
• Towards a formalization of viewpoints testing. Savi Maharaj Marius C. Bujorianu and Manuela Bujorianu. In Robert M. Hierons and Thierry Jéron, editors, Formal Approaches To Testing of Software 2002 (FATES'02), Research Report, 35042 Rennes, France, August 2002. INRIA. A satellite workshop of CONCUR'02.
• Unifying concurrent and relational refinement. Eerke Boiten and John Derrick. In John Derrick, Eerke Boiten, Jim Woodcock, and Joakim von Wright, editors, REFINE 02: The BCS FACS Refinement Workshop, volume 70(3) of Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science, page 38. Elsevier Science Publishers, July 2002.
• Integration of specifications through development relations. Eerke Boiten and John Derrick. In H. Ehrig, B.J. Kr"amer, and A. Ertas, editors, Proceedings of IDPT: the Sixth Biennial World Conference on Integrated Design and Process Technology, page 8. SDPS, June 2002.
• Integrating specifications: Development relations and correspondences. Eerke Boiten. In Hartmut Ehrig and Martin Grosse-Rhode, editors, INT'02: Integration of Software Specification Techniques, ETAPS 2002 Satellite Workshop, page 1, April 2002. Invited Lecture.

[UKC] [Dept]