Verifying incomplete and evolving specifications

Classical verification techniques rely on the assumption that the model of the system under analysis is completely specified and does not change over time. However, most modern development life-cycles and even run-time environments (as in the case of adaptive systems), are implicitly based on incompleteness and evolution. Incompleteness occurs when some parts of the system are not specified. Evolution concerns a set of gradual and progressive changes that amend systems over time. Modern development life-cycles are founded on a sequence of iterative and incremental steps through which the initial incomplete description of the system evolves into its final, fully detailed, specification. Similarly, adaptive systems evolve through a set of adaptation actions, such as plugging and removing components, that modify the behavior of the system in response to new environmental conditions, requirements or legal regulations. Usually, the adaptation is performed by first removing old components, leaving the system temporarily unspecified-incomplete-, and then by plugging the new ones. This work aims to extend classical verification algorithms to consider incomplete and evolving specifications. We want to ensure that after any change, only the part of the system that is affected by the change, is re-analyzed, avoiding to re-verify everything from scratch.