Formal methods and testing are two important approaches that assist in the development of high-quality software. While traditionally these approaches have been seen as rivals, in recent years a new consensus has developed in which they are seen as complementary. This article reviews the state of the art regarding ways in which the presence of a formal specification can be used to assist testing.

Standards concerned with the development of safety-critical systems, and the software in such systems in particular, abound today as the software crisis increasingly affects the world of embedded computer-based systems. The use of formal methods is often advocated as a way of increasing confidence in such systems. This paper examines the industrial use of these techniques, the recommendations concerning formal methods in a number of current and draft standards, and comments on the applicability and problems of using formal methods for the development of safety-critical systems on an industrial scale. Some possible future directions are suggested.

Museums increasingly recognize the need to address advances in digital culture which impact the expectations and needs of their audiences. Museum collections of real objects need to be presented both on their own premises and digitally online, especially as digital and social media becomes more and more influential in people’s everyday lives. From interdisciplinary perspectives across digital culture, art, and technology, we investigate these challenges magnified by advances in digital and computational media and culture, looking particularly at recent and relevant reports on changes in the ways museums interact with the public. We focus on human digital behavior, experience, and interaction in museums in the context of art, artists, and human engagement with art, using the observational perspectives of the authors as a basis for discussion. Our research shows that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated many of the changes driving museum transformation, about which this paper presents a landscape view of its characteristics and challenges. Our evidence shows that museums will need to be more prepared than ever to adapt to unabated technological advances set in the midst of cultural and social revolution, now intrinsic to the digital landscape in which museums are inevitably connected and participating across the global digital ecosystem where they inevitably find themselves entrenched, underscoring the central importance of an inclusive integrative museum model between physical and digital reality.

New myths about formal methods are gaining tacit acceptance both outside and inside the system-development community. The authors address and dispel these myths based on their observations of industrial projects. The myths include: formal methods delay the development process; they lack tools; they replace traditional engineering design methods; they only apply to software; are unnecessary; not supported; and formal methods people always use formal methods.

Producing correct, reliable software in systems of ever increasing complexity is a problem with no immediate end in sight. The software industry suffers from a plague of bugs on a near-biblical scale. One promising technique in alleviating this problem is the application of formal methods that provide a rigorous mathematical basis to software development. When correctly applied, formal methods produce systems of the highest integrity and thus are especially recommended for security- and safety-critical systems. Unfortunately, although projects based on formal methods are proliferating, the use of these methods is still more the exception than the rule, which results from many misconceptions regarding their costs, difficulties, and payoffs. Surveys of formal methods applied to large problems in industry help dispel these misconceptions and show that formal methods projects can be completed on schedule and within budget. Moreover, these surveys show that formal methods projects produce correct software (and hardware) that is well structured, maintainable, and satisfies customer requirements. Through observations of many recently completed and in-progress projects we have come up with ten guidelines that, if adhered to, greatly increase a project's chances for success.