Component-based systems as an aid to design validation

There is a continuing need for software engineers to design better-quality systems more quickly. Component-based technologies promise to make this possible, but modern systems are too complex for a full analysis of their behaviour to be practical. We propose that a reasonable alternative is to analyse abstract models of the essential features of a system. Since these models are abstract, they need contain only those details that are relevant to the aspect of the system under consideration. Consequently, they can be small enough to be constructed quickly and analysed thoroughly using formal methods. Tools are required which are accessible to the novice but which remain powerful enough to build models with a formal foundation so that they can be used by system designers who have limited expertise in the use of formal methods. We propose our tool, RolEnact, as a candidate for this role.