Issues in real-time process controller realization

The first step in the software development process is the construction of a requirements specification. Ideally such a specification expresses all requirements to be posed upon the software to be developed. Current formal methods lack one desirable property: their use requires skills that are often not possessed by specialists from other disciplines. This lack of understandability complicates the realization of systems. In this paper we address problems that arise in the specification of timing requirements for a software controller. It turns out that such requirements are often implicitly present in the domain oriented specification. This process is illustrated with a case study. Finally we address solutions for the problems encountered, which emphasize the need for developing specification formalisms that are suited to specialists from various disciplines