Safety analysis techniques for validating formal models during verification

Abstract

The increased interest in the use of automated safety analysis is supported by the claim that safety analysis based on traditional techniques (predominantly manual) is error-prone, costly and not necessarily complete. It is also claimed that traditional techniques are not able to deal with the inherent complexities of software intensive systems. However, we show in this paper that a transition (from manual to automatic approaches) in the assessment process and technologies is accompanied by an inherent risk of obtaining false confidence, unless safeguards are provided. The safeguard presented in this paper integrates traditional deductive and inductive analysis techniques with model checking, a form of formal verification. The aim is to provide the safety analyst with a rigorous approach for the validation of formal models.