Visual communication of formal design properties-a case study

Formal methods hold the promise for high dependability in the design of critical software. However, software engineers who employ formal methods need to communicate their design decisions to those who may not be in a position to acquire a full understanding of the formal notation being used. Visualizations might be able to convey the required information precisely and reliably without the use of formal notation. This paper presents a case study on how to employ visualization to communicate information about successive refinements involved in the formal derivation of a message router. The ultimate goal is to identify issues fundamental to this particular use of visualization and to outline a methodology which achieves effective visual communication without compromising formal reasoning