FM 2011 Symposium slides

From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community Prof. Jonathan P. Bowen Museophile Limited London South Bank University University of Westminster www.jpbowen.com [email_address]

Thank you to the University of Waikato, Dept. of CS, New Zealand www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~stever … Steve Reeves for the invitation, funding, and collaboration in November 2010 … Mark Utting for my office … Cimbale for endless espresso!

Abstract
There once was a Z CoP.
The result was a BoK, don’t you see?
It started with ZUG
And then there was BUG,
A true FM community.

Overview
Community of Practice (CoP) – collection of people developing domain knowledge
Formal methods community – Z User Group
Body of Knowledge (BoK) – ontology for a particular professional domain
Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) – ACM/IEEE
Z specification of a BOK – FMBoK

Community of Practice (CoP)
Social sciences concept
Wenger, E.: Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1998)
Wenger, E., McDermott, R.A., Snyder, W.: Cultivating Communities of Practice: A guide to managing knowledge . Harvard Business School Press, Boston (2002)

Various formal methods CoPs!

B community!
A small B community in Bantry, southwest Ireland!

Fundamental Elements of a CoP
Domain: Common interest to be effective. E.g., Z notation.
Community: Group of people willing to engage with others. Z started at Oxford University, then Z User Group.
Practice: Explore existing and develop new knowledge. Z is discrete maths, with schema boxes and extra operators for large specs.

Community development
“ The art of community development is to use the synergy between domain, community, and practice to help a community evolve and fulfil its potential.” – Wenger et al. (2002)

Cultivating a CoP
Design the CoP to evolve naturally. Initially at Oxford, with a Masters and intensive Z courses, later at UK and then internationally.
Create opportunities for open discussion . Annual Z User Meeting established in 1986, initially in Oxford, later around UK/Europe. Also Z FORUM.

3. Welcome and allow different levels of participation .
Bar
King

3. Welcome and allow different levels of participation .
Develop Z – researchers
Learn Z – students
Use Z – industry
Read Z – testers, implementers
Write Z – specifiers
Appreciate Z – managers

4. Develop both public and private CoP facilities .
Z User Meeting, core of public event for Z (then ZB, now ABZ)
Z web information
Z books
Z standard
Z courses

5. Focus on the value of the CoP .
As well as the ZUM, academic and industrial courses:
Z Reference Manual (ZRM) from 1989
Z User Group ( www.zuser.org ) from 1992
ISO/IEC 13568:2002 standard for Z in 2002
Community Z Tools (CZT) initiative ( czt.sourceforge.net )

6. Combine familiarity and excitement within the CoP .
As well as ZUM:
ZFORUM mailing list established in 1980s
then linked to comp.specification.z newsgroup (now on Google Groups)
Z archive established using FTP/email access at Oxford
later web-based from 1994
now on a Formal Methods Wiki under formalmethods.wikia.com

7. Find and nurture a regular rhythm for the CoP .
Z User Meetings held at first annually, then (as ZB) on an 18-month cycle, and now (as ABZ) a two-year cycle.
“ The challenge of designing natural structures like communities of practice is creating an approach to design that redefines design itself” – Wenger et al. (2002)

Stages of Community Development
Potential: extant social and/or professional network needed to bootstrap a CoP. Initially for Z, there was a group of people already interested in formal methods in general at Oxford.
Coalescing: needs to combine good understanding of existing knowledge with what is possible in the future. Oxford group already expert in underlying maths used by Z. with a vision of computer-based system specification.

3. Maturing: must be a move from establishing goals to first steps in realization.
Establishment of ZUM in 1986, together with Z FORUM electronic newsletter seminal in providing a focus.
IBM CICS project (1980s) provided an example of a real industrial project.
Spivey’s Z Reference Manual provided a de facto standard (1988, 2 nd ed. In 1992, online in 2001).

4. Stewardship: once CoP matured, momentum must be maintained with changes in personnel, etc.
Establishment of the Z User Group (1992)
organizational focus
ISO Z standard (2002)
formalization, basis for Z BoK?
Community Z Tools project (2000s)
open source Z tools

5. Transformation: eventually CoP will naturally transmogrify into a new form or disappear.
ZUM became:
International Conference of Z Users (1995)
first outside UK in Berlin (1997)
ZB conference (2000)
ABZ conference (2008)
Movement to B-Method, Event-B, Alloy

Body of Knowledge
“ All men by nature desire knowledge .” – Aristotle
A CoP can develop a Body of Knowledge (BoK)
A BoK provides concepts, terms, activities, useful/essential in a professional domain
Typically produced by a professional association
Used for certification and education or training
“ The only source of knowledge is experience.”
– Albert Einstein

IEEE SWEBOK
SWEBOK: Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge . IEEE Computer Society (2004), www.swebok.org
Intended to cover knowledge after four years of practice
Does not cover non-software engineering knowledge a software engineer should have

IEEE/ACM SEEK
Software Engineering Education Knowledge
Joint Task Force on Computing Curricula. Software Engineering 2004: Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Software Engineering. Computing Curricula Series, IEEE CS/ACM sites.computer.org/ccse/SE2004Volume.pdf

FMEK/FMBOK
Suggestion:
Formal Methods Education Knowledge
Formal Methods Body of Knowledge
Balance of theory and practice an issue
Abstraction, modelling, information organization and representation, management of change (cf. SEEK)

BoK in Z Names of entities and references to external items Entries and separate categories to provide structure

State and constraints BoK has entries, categories and references There are links between entries, entries and categories may be categorized, and entries may include citations

Further constraints Links, categories, and citations must be valid Entries may have no links, categories , or citations

Further constraints Entries with no links to them are orphans Some references may be uncited

Further constraints All entries have links, citations, and categories, although some categories may not have entries All entries are linked, all categories are used, and all refs are cited

Further constraints Self-links and self-categories should be disallowed More strongly, loops are not desirable in categories

Further constraints Top-level categories are not categorized All categories are used (i.e., they are not empty)

Further constraints If entries are not interlinked, it is questionable why they are needed More strongly, all entries may be linked in both directions

Overall BoK All categories and entries are interconnected from the top-level categories by traversing up and down the categories Further desirable properties can be added as constraints

Conclusions & Future Work
First time FM community has been considered in a CoP context
The Z community is at the last CoP stage
A success since communities can fail before this
Newer FM communities could learn from this
FMEK/FMBOK could be proposed “formally”
Z (or similar) could be used to formalize a BoK framework

Alan Turing – 99 to 100 years
Born on 23 June 1912
Centenary events in Bletchley Park, California, Cambridge, Manchester, Oxford
Sat-Sun 23-24 June 2012 at Department of Continuing Education, Oxford
Cliff Jones, Samson Abramsky, Martin Campbell-Kelly, Andrew Hodges, Jack Copeland, etc.
Turing sculpture by Stephen Kettle www.stephenkettle.co.uk

From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community Prof. Jonathan P. Bowen Museophile Limited London South Bank University University of Westminster www.jpbowen.com [email_address]

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FM 2011 Symposium slides

by Jonathan Bowen

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