Specification patterns for probabilistic quality properties

Probabilistic verification techniques are a powerful means to ensure that a software-intensive system fulfills its quality requirements. To apply these techniques an accurate specification of the required properties in a probabilistic temporal logic is necessary. To help practitioners formulate these properties correctly, this paper presents a specification pattern system of common probabilistic properties called ProProST. This pattern system has been a developed based on a survey of 152 properties from academic examples and 48 properties of real-word quality requirements from avionic, defence and automotive systems. Furthermore, a structured English grammar that can guide in the specification of probabilistic properties is given. Similar to previous specification patterns for traditional and real-time properties, the presented specification pattern system and the structured English grammar captures expert knowledge and helps practitioners to correctly apply formal verification techniques.