Lessons Learned from Applying Formal Speci cation in Industry

Industrial software developers are faced with a bewildering array of software engineering tech niques each with its own promised bene ts Yet the choice between them is often informed more by what Fenton calls the unsubstanti ated advertising claims and biases of produc ers both academic and industrial than by evidence of the costs and bene ts of these techniques in an industrial setting Companies are sometimes reluctant to be the rst to en ter new territory without a su ciently large public body of such evidence new techniques may be considered too immature for commer cial adoption Many industrial companies have already invested a great deal of e ort in the de velopment process which has normally under gone some form of certi cation to show that it