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Inconsistency Handling in Multiperspective Specifications

Published: 01 August 1994 Publication History
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  • Abstract

    The development of most large and complex systems necessarily involves many people-each with their own perspectives on the system defined by their knowledge, responsibilities, and commitments. To address this we have advocated distributed development of specifications from multiple perspectives. However, this leads to problems of identifying and handling inconsistencies between such perspectives. Maintaining absolute consistency is not always possible. Often this is not even desirable since this can unnecessarily constrain the development process, and can lead to the loss of important information. Indeed since the real-world forces us to work with inconsistencies, we should formalize some of the usually informal or extra-logical ways of responding to them. This is not necessarily done by eradicating inconsistencies but rather by supplying logical rules specifying how we should act on them. To achieve this, we combine two lines of existing research: the ViewPoints framework for perspective development, interaction and organization, and a logic-based approach to inconsistency handling. This paper presents our technique for inconsistency handling in the ViewPoints framework by using simple examples.

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    Published In

    cover image IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
    IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering  Volume 20, Issue 8
    August 1994
    118 pages

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    IEEE Press

    Publication History

    Published: 01 August 1994

    Author Tags

    1. ViewPoints
    2. complex systems
    3. data integrity
    4. development
    5. distributed development
    6. distributed processing
    7. first order predicate logic
    8. formal specification
    9. inconsistency handling
    10. logical rules
    11. multiperspective specifications
    12. multiple perspectives
    13. process modeling
    14. specification
    15. specifications
    16. temporal logic

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