Real-time systems-animation prototyping of formal specifications

A crucial aspect of the specification process is matching what the specification says the system should do with what the client requires of the system. Many of the above approaches to software development, both formal and informal, have little regard for eliciting the clients opinions on the suitability of a specification. All require, to a greater or lesser degree, a knowledge of abstract notations. How can clients assess a specification written in notations with which they have no experience? Wider acceptance is being sought for formal, mathematical methods for very good reasons, but how much do they contribute to effective communication between specifiers and clients? The authors look at what formal methods are and the benefits that they give and the difficulties that they raise