Vacuous real-time requirements

  • Authors:
  • A. Post;J. Hoenicke;A. Podelski

  • Affiliations:
  • Res. & Adv. Eng., Robert Bosch GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany;Software Eng., Univ. of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany;Software Eng., Univ. of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

  • Venue:
  • RE '11 Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE 19th International Requirements Engineering Conference
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

We introduce the property of vacuity for requirements. A requirement is vacuous in a set of requirements if it is equivalent to a simpler requirement in the context of the other requirements. For example, the requirement "if A then B" is vacuous together with the requirement "not A". The existence of a vacuous requirement is likely to indicate an error. We give an algorithm that proves the absence of this kind of error for real-time requirements. A case study in an industrial context demonstrates the practical potential of the algorithm.