Numerous researchers have reported success in reasoning about properties of small programs using finite-state verification techniques. We believe, as do most researchers in this area, that in order to scale those initial successes to realistic programs, aggressive abstraction of program data will be necessary. Furthermore, we believe that to make abstraction-based verification usable by non-experts significant tool support will be required. In this paper we describe how several different program analysis and transformation techniques are integrated into the Bandera toolset to provide facilities for abstracting Java programs to produce compact, finite-state models that are amenable to verification for example via model checking. We illustrate the application of Bandera's abstraction facilities to analyze a realistic multi-threaded Java program.

Finite-state verification techniques, such as model checking, have shown promise as a cost-effective means for finding defects in hardware designs. To date, the application of these techniques to software has been hindered by several obstacles. Chief among these is the problem of constructing a finite-state model that approximates the executable behavior of the software system of interest. Current best-practice involves hand-construction of models which is expensive (prohibitive for all but the smallest systems), prone to errors (which can result in misleading verification results), and difficult to optimize (which is necessary to combat the exponential complexity of verification algorithms).

We apply formal description techniques (FDT) to model, compose and give operational meaning to the class of reactive systems representing manufacturing enterprises. The enterprise pursues its activities by means of resources and processes that execute concurrently on the resources, subject to internal (resource) and external (market) constraints. Some modelling techniques are familiar for reactive systems, other are specific to this domain: modelling management decisions, product transfer during one-to-one (one supplier one consumer) synchronisation, marketing and many-to-one (many suppliers one consumer) synchronisation. The paper is a novel application of FDTs, also a contribution to the semantics of enterprise engineering.