Correctness enhancement: A pervasive software engineering paradigm

Besma Khaireddine; Marwa Ben AbdelAli; Lamia Labed Jilani; Aleksandr Zakharchenko; Ali Mili

doi:10.1504/IJCCBS.2020.108670

Correctness enhancement: A pervasive software engineering paradigm

Besma Khaireddine, Marwa Ben AbdelAli, Lamia Labed Jilani, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, Ali Mili

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Refinement-based correctness-preserving transformations are considered as the gold standard of program transformations. While we do not dispute the merits of transforming programs in a way that preserves their correctness, we argue that the vast majority of software engineering processes are in fact instances of correctness enhancement rather than correctness preservation. In this paper, we discuss mathematics of correctness enhancement, i.e., the process of making a program more correct than it is with respect to a specification; then we highlight in what way and to what extent correctness enhancement pervades the practice of software engineering.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	37-73
Number of pages	37
Journal	International Journal of Critical Computer-Based Systems
Volume	10
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1504/IJCCBS.2020.108670
State	Published - 2020

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

General Computer Science

Keywords

Absolute correctness
Adaptive maintenance
Corrective maintenance
Extreme programming
Program derivation
Program merger
Program repair
Program upgrade
Relative correctness
Software processes
Test driven design
Whitebox reuse

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10.1504/IJCCBS.2020.108670

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Correctness enhancement: A pervasive software engineering paradigm

Abstract

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Keywords

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