BDD encoding for partial order constraints and its application to expert systems in software verification domains

We introduce a class of computational problems called partial-order constraint satisfaction problems (POCSPs) for formulating the general problem of determining partial orders that satisfy the given constraints. Then we present some heuristic methods for encoding and solving these problems efficiently by using the binary decision diagram (BDD) data structure. Finally, we show that these methods can be successfully applied to expert systems in the subdomain of software verification.