The Role of Modelling in Teaching Formal Methods for Software Engineering

This paper argues that the teaching of formal methods within software engineering must aim to equip students to apply the kinds of methods that may be in use throughout their future careers, rather than just those that exist at present. In particular, it argues that this use will increasingly need to be tied closely to the activity of modelling systems, and to the various kinds of nonformal models that underpin the approach of model-driven development. To support this argument, it identifies the points in the development process where formal methods should make particular contributions, and considers how this support can be covered within the constraints of the curriculum for a typical software engineering degree programme, showing how identifying formal methods paradigms can contribute to this.