Formal methods, in the context of software development, are techniques based on mathematics used to
precisely describe a system. They can be applied throughout the development of a system and involve the
use of refi nement techniques and proofs of correctness at each stage, to ensure that the current specifi cation
refi nes the previous specifi cation completely and correctly. Formal methods can also be used to ensure that
unsafe or insecure states cannot arise in any system satisfying a formal specifi cation. These methods are the
outcome of program proving techniques, early examples of which are E. W. Dijkstra’s predicate transformers
and Harlan Mills’ function approach.
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