Correct-by-construction requirement decomposition.

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Bibliographic Details
Title: Correct-by-construction requirement decomposition.
Authors: Sun, Minghui1 (AUTHOR) minghui_sun@nuist.edu.cn, Bakirtzis, Georgios2,3 (AUTHOR), Jafarzadeh, Hassan4 (AUTHOR), Fleming, Cody5 (AUTHOR)
Source: Software & Systems Modeling. Feb2026, Vol. 25 Issue 1, p271-286. 16p.
Subjects: Requirements engineering, Constraint programming, System safety, Systems engineering, Cruise control, Research methodology
Abstract: In systems engineering, accurately decomposing requirements is crucial for creating well-defined and manageable system components, particularly in safety-critical domains. Despite the critical need, rigorous, top-down methodologies for effectively breaking down complex requirements into precise, actionable sub-requirements are scarce, especially compared to the wealth of bottom-up verification techniques. Addressing this gap, we introduce a formal decomposition for contract-based design that guarantees the correctness of decomposed requirements if specific conditions are met. Our (semi-)automated methodology augments contract-based design with reachability analysis and constraint programming to systematically identify, verify, and validate sub-requirements representable by continuous bounded sets—continuous relations between real-valued inputs and outputs. We demonstrate the efficacy and practicality of a correct-by-construction approach through a comprehensive case study on a cruise control system, highlighting how our methodology improves the interpretability, tractability, and verifiability of system requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Database: Engineering Source
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Abstract:In systems engineering, accurately decomposing requirements is crucial for creating well-defined and manageable system components, particularly in safety-critical domains. Despite the critical need, rigorous, top-down methodologies for effectively breaking down complex requirements into precise, actionable sub-requirements are scarce, especially compared to the wealth of bottom-up verification techniques. Addressing this gap, we introduce a formal decomposition for contract-based design that guarantees the correctness of decomposed requirements if specific conditions are met. Our (semi-)automated methodology augments contract-based design with reachability analysis and constraint programming to systematically identify, verify, and validate sub-requirements representable by continuous bounded sets—continuous relations between real-valued inputs and outputs. We demonstrate the efficacy and practicality of a correct-by-construction approach through a comprehensive case study on a cruise control system, highlighting how our methodology improves the interpretability, tractability, and verifiability of system requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:16191366
DOI:10.1007/s10270-025-01291-4