Using formal models to objectively judge quality of multi-threaded programs in empirical studies

Authors:
Laura K. Dillon;R. E. K. Stirewalt;Eileen Kraemer;Shaohua Xie;Scott D. Fleming
Affiliations:
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA;Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA;University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA;University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA;Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
Venue:
Proceedings of the 2008 international workshop on Models in software engineering
Year:
2008

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Abstract

Empirical studies are important for understanding how well current design methods and notations support development of multi-threaded programs. Unfortunately, concurrency exacerbates an already difficult problem in drawing conclusions from such studies: How to objectively measure the quality of candidate solutions produced by participants in the studies. This paper explores the use of formal modeling and analysis for this purpose. We describe initial findings of a small pilot study to determine if we can objectively differentiate sample candidate solutions with respect to their use of synchronization primitives. To do so, we faithfully model these candidate solutions and various synchronization-related properties in the Finite State Processes (FSP) notation and use the Labeled Transition System Analyzer (LTSA) to analyze the solution models against the properties.