Multiparty specification
Anthony Finkelstein, Hugo Fukś · ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes · 1989
This paper examines a formal model of how specifications can be constructed from multiple viewpoints and presents some tools to support this approach. The development of specifications is presented as a dialogue in which the viewpoints negotiate, establish responsibilities and cooperatively construct a specification. The model is illustrated by means of some small examples. Keywords: formal specification, distributed artificial intelligence, dialogue, logic, tool support 1 Introduction "Specification-in-the-large", that is the development of requirements specifications for systems of substantial complexity and scale, mirrors "programming-in-thelarge " in raising a variety of difficulties that lie beyond the clerical problems of handling large amounts of information (Cunningham, Finkelstein et al 1985, Finkelstein & Potts 1987). One such difficulty is that of specification from multiple viewpoints (Niskier 1987). Specification-in-the-large is an activity in which there are many particip...