Teaching Mathematics to Software Engineers

Based on my experience in teaching formal methods to practicing and aspiring software engineers, I present some of the common stumbling blocks faced when writing formal speciications. The most conspicuous problem is learning to abstract. I address all these problems indirectly by giving a list of hints to speciiers. Thus this paper should be of interest not only to teachers of formal methods but also to their students. and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing oocial policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of Wright Laboratory or the United States Government.