Automated method for building and maintaining software including methods for verifying that systems are internally consistent and correct relative to their specifications

A computer implemented method for specifying, designing, testing, implementing and maintaining at least one of a plurality of systems that can be guaranteed to be internally consistent and abstractly correct with respect to their specifications via successive refinement, said method comprising the steps of:

• a) building and maintaining a specification hierarchy representing a behavioral system in which input and output variables have been hierarchically structured so that abstract behavior of said behavioral system at successive levels of refinement in said specification hierarchy is equivalent in response to a request to specify the behavior of said system;
• b) in response to a request building and maintaining a design hierarchy corresponding to the behavioral system in which each refinement in said design hierarchy conforms to consistency constraints, which guarantee that the children in each said refinement produce behavior that is abstractly equivalent to that of the parent, wherein each design in said design hierarchy produces abstract behavior equivalent to a corresponding specification hierarchy hierarchy when said specification hierachy of step a) exists;
• c) analyzing at least one of said specification hierarchy and said design hierarchy in response to a request to extract information inherent in at least one of said specification hierarchy and said design hierarchy;
• d) modifying said specification hierarchy in response to a request to modify the abstract behavior of said specification hierarchy;
• e) modifying said design hierarchy in response to a request to modify the abstract behavior of said design hierarchy;
• f) testing at least one design in response to a request subsequent to at least one of the steps of dynamically modeling the behavior of said design and creating test cases for said design and proving conclusively that a component in at least one said design executes according to its specification;
• g) in response to a request implementing at least one component by converting said components in said design into executables;
• and
• h) in response to a request performing at least one of the steps of executing said design, calling said design from an existing application and executing a component or a design corresponding to at least one component in said design.