Reusing LOTOS specifications

Reuse is the process of implementing software systems using existing compon ents. The use of formal specifications of software components produces a go od characterization of their functionalities and then eases the re-usabilit y of a module. Moreover, reuse efforts should be directed to most of the so ftware life-cycle phases and not only to the final code of a project, which in general consumes only 10-15% of the time and the cost of the entire pro ject. This work presents a tool supporting a method to derive the modificat ions of the specification of an existing module from a characterization of the environment in which the new module has to be used. The tool is integra ted with the Concurrency Workbench of North Carolina, which is a well-known verification environment for process algebras. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B .V. All rights reserved.