SOFL + MSVL 2014 - 4th International Workshop on SOFL+MSVL

There is a growing interest in applying formal methods in practice to improve software productivity and quality, but only with a few exceptions, this interest has not been successfully converted into the reality of application. How to enable practitioners to easily and effectively use formal techniques still remains challenging.
The Structured Object-oriented Formal Language (SOFL) has been developed to address this challenge by providing a comprehensible specification language, a practical modeling method, various verification and validation techniques, and tool support through effective integration of formal methods with conventional software engineering techniques. SOFL integrates Data Flow Diagram, Petri Nets, and VDM-SL to offer a visualized and formal notation for specification construction; a three-step approach to requirements acquisition and system design; specification-based inspection and testing methods for detecting errors in both specifications and programs, and a set of tools to support modeling and verification.
The Modeling, Simulation and Verification Language (MSVL) is a parallel programming language. Its supporting tool MSV has been developed to enable us to model, simulate and verify a system in a formal way.
Following the success of previous SOFL workshops, this workshop aims to promote the development and combinations of the SOFL formal engineering method and the formal method MSVL in principles and applications. We expect to bring industrial, academic and government experts of SOFL and MSVL to communicate and to exchange ideas. Researchers, practitioners, tool developers and users, and technology transfer experts are all welcome. The scope of the interest includes all aspects of SOFL and MSVL and related topics.
Papers are solicited in all areas related to SOFL, MSVL or related techniques. Topic areas include, but are not limited to:
● Modeling and Specification
● Integration of prototyping and formal specification
● Integration of Agile methods and formal specification
● Specification inspection and verification
● Specification animation
● Automatic transformation
● Specification-based inspection and verification
● Specification-based testing
● Evolution and refinement
● Model checking
● Software process
● Project management
● Service-oriented computing
● Application
● Semantics
● Software Tools