Specification and design of transactions in information systems: a formal approach

In conventional information systems development, consistency between requirements specifications and design is achieved by manual checking. The application of the transformational paradigm to the specification and design phases is proposed. Requirements are expressed in the ADISSA notation, using the ADISSA method, a transaction-oriented refinement of structured systems analysis. The control part of a transaction is transformed into a formal specification, the FSM (finite state machine) transaction, by applying a set of rules. The design stage is realized by an algorithm which compares the FSM transaction into simpler transactions and implements them with a hierarchical set of finite-state machines. Consistency between the formal specification and the result of the design is achieved by proving that the latter has the same behavior as the former.<
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