Qualification of Formal Methods Tools

Formal methods tools have been shown to be effective at finding defects in and verifying the correctness of safety-critical systems, many of which require some form of certification. However, there are still many issues that must be addressed before formal verification tools can be used as part of the certification of safety-critical systems. For example, most developers of avionics systems are unfamiliar with which formal methods tools are most appropriate for different problem domains. Different levels of expertise are necessary to use these tools effectively and correctly. In most certification processes, a tool used to meet process objectives must be qualified. The qualification of formal verification tools will likely pose unique challenges. Experts from academia and industry met in the Dagstuhl Seminar 15182 "Qualification of Formal Methods Tools" to discuss challenges and barriers related to the use of formal methods tools in contexts requiring software certification and tool qualfication.