Formal methods: Practice and experience
The work
| Authors | Jim Woodcock; Peter Gorm Larsen; Juan Bicarregui; John Fitzgerald |
|---|---|
| Editors | |
| Type | article |
| Year | 2009 |
| Citekey | woodcock2009formal |
Where it appeared
| Published in | ACM Computing Surveys |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1--36 |
Identifiers
| DOI | 10.1145/1592434.1592436 |
|---|---|
| OpenAlex | W2150189917 |
Access
| Landing page | https://doi.org/10.1145/1592434.1592436 |
|---|---|
| Free full text | https://epubs.stfc.ac.uk/manifestation/4234/fmsurvey.pdf |
Empty on purpose
| copy |
Related
| Distinct from | broy2024does |
|---|---|
| Distinct from | craigen1995formal |
| Distinct from | gleirscher2019opportunities |
| Distinct from | haxthausen2010introduction |
| Distinct from | ibidunmoye2015performance |
| Distinct from | newcombe2015amazon |
| Distinct from | shu2016study |
| Distinct from | zander2007survey |
Abstract
Formal methods use mathematical models for analysis and verification at any part of the program life-cycle. We describe the state of the art in the industrial use of formal methods, concentrating on their increasing use at the earlier stages of specification and design. We do this by reporting on a new survey of industrial use, comparing the situation in 2009 with the most significant surveys carried out over the last 20 years. We describe some of the highlights of our survey by presenting a series of industrial projects, and we draw some observations from these surveys and records of experience. Based on this, we discuss the issues surrounding the industrial adoption of formal methods. Finally, we look to the future and describe the development of a Verified Software Repository, part of the worldwide Verified Software Initiative. We introduce the initial projects being used to populate the repository, and describe the challenges they address.
How it got here
| How it got here | agent via openalex |
|---|---|
| Added | 2026-08-25 00:00 UTC |
| Not denied by | a person 2026-10-29 17:12 UTC |
Filed under
Cite it as
@article{woodcock2009formal,
title = {Formal methods: Practice and experience},
author = {Jim Woodcock and Peter Gorm Larsen and Juan Bicarregui and John Fitzgerald},
year = {2009},
journal = {ACM Computing Surveys},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
volume = {41},
number = {4},
pages = {1--36},
doi = {10.1145/1592434.1592436},
}
This record lives at https://refs.drheap.org/woodcock2009formal/ and will keep doing so.