Towards a Broader Acceptance of Formal Verification Tools: The Role of Education

Abstract

Formal methods face challenges towards wide acceptance and adoption in software development practices. The major reason is presumed complexity of the concepts, tools and formal processes. The issue can be addressed by academia with a thoughtful plan of teaching and practise. The user study detailed in this paper is examining AutoProof tool with the motivation to identify complexities attributed to formal methods. Participants’ (students of Masters program in Computer Science) performance and feedback on the experience with formal methods assisted us in extracting specific problem areas that effect tool usability. The study results infer, along with improvements in verification tool functionalities, that teaching programs need to be modified by including pre-requisite courses to make formal methods easily adapted by students and promote their usage in software development process.