Verified software grand challenge

Abstract

Some practitioners in industry and researchers from universities believe its now practical to use formal methods to produce software, even non-critical software, and that this will turn out to be the cheapest way to do it. Given the right computer-based tools, the use of formal methods could become widespread and transform the practice of software engineering. The computer science community recently committed itself to making this a reality within the next fifteen to twenty years. Collectively, we have a lot of experience in the successful use of formal methods in industry, and this is being strengthened by a new wave of tools shielding users from deep technical issues. The time is now right for a concerted push at software verification, and considerable activity is already under way in the Verified Software Grand Challenge and its pilot projects. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.