Formalization and Validation of an SADT Specification Through Executable Simulation Using the Refine Specification Environment.

摘要

Formalizing an informal requirements specification, such as SADT, and executing the formal specification in a simulation environment, such as Refine, provides the requirements analyst a means to validate the behavior of a specification early in the development life cycle. This research effort investigated and demonstrated the feasibility and benefit of transforming SADT specification of a system into an equivalent Refine executable specification. First, a decision table extension to SADT is created so that detailed, executable behavior can be specified. Next, a mapping from SADT to Refine is defined. Last, this mapping is applied to two example problems: the Heating System and the Lift (Elevator) Control System. SADT specifications were generated for both problems, and the resulting specifications were manually transformed into equivalent Refine specifications using the mapping technique defined by this research. The Refine simulation environment was used to execute the resulting specifications to determine their behavior, make necessary changes, and re-execute until the proper behavior was specified. Additionally, a design for automating the translation technique based on an object-oriented SADT repository is provided.