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

Aug 23, 2014

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Jonathan Bowen

Speaker: Prof. Jonathan P. BOWEN, London South Bank University / University of Westminster / Museophile Limited United Kingdom

Date: Friday, 24 June 2011, FM 2011 Symposium, University of Limerick, Ireland

Abstract: A Body of Knowledge (BoK) is an ontology for a particular professional
domain. A Community of Practice (CoP) is the collection of people developing
such knowledge. In the paper we explore these concepts in the context
of the formal methods community in general and the Z notation community, as
has been supported by the Z User Group, in particular. The existing SWEBOK
Software Engineering Body of Knowledge is considered with respect to formal
methods and a high-level model for the possible structure of of a BoK is provided
using the Z notation.

Biography: Prof. Jonathan P. Bowen, FBCS, FRSA, is Chair of Museophile Limited, an IT consultancy company. He is also a Visiting Professor at University of Westminster since 2010 and an Emeritus Professor at London South Bank University since 2007. From 2007-2009, he was a Visiting Professor at the King's College London. In 2007, he was a visiting academic at University College London; in 2008, he was a visiting lecturer at Brunel University and during 2008-2009 he worked on a large industrial high integrity software engineering project using formal methods. Previously he was at the University of Reading, the Oxford University Computing Laboratory and Imperial College, London. He has been involved with the field of computing in both industry and academia since 1977, specializing in software engineering in general and formal methods in particular. In 2002, Bowen founded Museophile Limited with the original aim to help museums online. He is an enthusiastic contributor to Wikipedia in the area of museums and on computing topics. Bowen is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and of the Royal Society of Arts. He holds the Freedom of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists and is a member of the ACM and IEEE. He has an MA degree in Engineering Science from Oxford University.

FM 2011 Symposium slides
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Page 1: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

From a Community of PracticeFrom a Community of Practiceto a Body of Knowledge:to a Body of Knowledge:

A case study of the formal methods communityA case study of the formal methods community

Prof. Jonathan P. BowenMuseophile Limited

London South Bank UniversityUniversity of Westminster

[email protected]

Page 2: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

Thank you to theUniversity 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!

Page 3: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

Abstract

There once was a Z CoP.The result was a BoK, don’t you see?

It started with ZUGAnd then there was BUG,

A true FM community.

Page 4: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods 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

Page 5: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

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)

Page 6: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

Various formal methods CoPs!

Page 7: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

B community!

A small B community in Bantry, southwest Ireland!

Page 8: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

Fundamental Elements of a CoP1. Domain: Common interest to be effective.

E.g., Z notation.2. Community: Group of people willing to

engage with others. Z started at Oxford University, then Z User Group.

3. Practice: Explore existing and develop new knowledge. Z is discrete maths, with schema boxes and extra operators for large specs.

Page 9: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

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)

Page 10: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

Cultivating a CoP

1. Design the CoP to evolve naturally. Initially at Oxford, with a Masters and intensive Z courses, later at UK and then internationally.

2. Create opportunities for open discussion. Annual Z User Meeting established in 1986, initially in Oxford, later around UK/Europe. Also Z FORUM.

Page 11: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

3. Welcome and allow different levels of participation.

• Bar

• King

Page 12: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

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

Page 13: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

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

Page 14: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

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)

Page 15: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

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

Page 16: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

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)

Page 17: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

Stages of Community Development1. 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.

2. 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.

Page 18: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

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, 2nd ed. In 1992, online in 2001).

Page 19: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

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

Page 20: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

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

Page 21: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

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

Page 22: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

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

Page 23: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

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

Page 24: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

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)

Page 25: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

BoK in Z

Names of entities and references to external items

Entries and separate categories to provide structure

Page 26: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

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

Page 27: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

Further constraints

Links, categories, and citations must be valid

Entries may have no links, categories , or citations

Page 28: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

Further constraints

Entries with no links to them are orphans

Some references may be uncited

Page 29: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

Further constraintsAll entries have links, citations, and categories, although some categories may not have entries

All entries are linked, all categories areused, and all refs are cited

Page 30: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

Further constraints

Self-links and self-categories should be disallowed

More strongly, loops are not desirable in categories

Page 31: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

Further constraints

Top-level categories are not categorized

All categories are used (i.e., they are not empty)

Page 32: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

Further constraints

If entries are not interlinked, it is questionable why they are needed

More strongly, all entries may be linked in both directions

Page 33: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

Overall BoK

All categories and entries are interconnected from the top-level categoriesby traversing up and down the categories

Further desirable properties can be added as constraints

Page 34: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

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

Page 35: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

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

Page 36: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

From a Community of PracticeFrom a Community of Practiceto a Body of Knowledge:to a Body of Knowledge:

A case study of the formal methods communityA case study of the formal methods community

Prof. Jonathan P. BowenMuseophile Limited

London South Bank UniversityUniversity of Westminster

[email protected]

Page 37: From a Community of Practice to a Body of Knowledge: A case study of the formal methods community

The End!