What is a Formal Method?

The work

AuthorsJeannette M. Wing
Editors
Typetechreport
Year1989
Citekeywing1989what

Where it appeared

PublisherSchool of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
Number in seriesCMU-CS-89-200

Access

Landing pagehttp://www.cs.cmu.edu/~wing/publications/CMU-CS-89-200.pdf

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Superseded bywing1990specifiers

From bibtex.

Abstract

A formal method is a mathematically-based technique used in Computer Science to describe properties of hardware and/or software systems. It provides a framework within which large, complex systems may be specified, developed, and verified in a systematic rather than ad hoc manner. A method is formal if it has a sound mathematical basis, typically given by a formal specification language. A formal method is only a method, rather than an isolated mathematical entity in itself, because of a number of pragmatic considerations: who uses it, what it is used for, when it is used, and how it is used. This paper elaborates on what makes up a formal method and compares six different well-known formal methods, three used to specify abstract data types and three used to specify properties of concurrent and distributed systems.

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How it got hereagent via bibtex
Added2026-09-03 07:16 UTC
Approved bya person 2026-09-04 18:18 UTC

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Cite it as

@techreport{wing1989what,
  title        = {What is a Formal Method?},
  author       = {Jeannette M. Wing},
  year         = {1989},
  publisher    = {School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University},
}

This record lives at https://refs.drheap.org/wing1989what/ and will keep doing so.