Process and progress of requirement formalization in Software Engineering

Abstract

Since the middle of the last century, research in formal methods has been initiated, and proposals and methodologies have been presented to apply them in software development. The idea was to overcome the diagnosed software crisis through the formalization of the software development life cycle. This article presents the results of a literature review about the progress and development of requirement formalization. The conclusion is that both are slow: there is not enough interest in the industry, academia does not train in formal methods, and there is no sponsorship for this research field. Due to quality, security, and software reliability deficiencies, it is necessary to reactivate research and experimentation with formal methods, as mathematics is expected to be the tool to overcome the software crisis.