Mining Software Specifications: Methodologies And Applications

An emerging topic in software engineering and data mining, specification mining tackles software maintenance and reliability issues that cost economies billions of dollars each year. The first unified reference on the subject, Mining Software Specifications and Applications describes recent approaches for mining specifications of software systems. Experts in the field illustrate how to apply state-of-the-art data mining and machine learning techniques to address software engineering concerns. The book introduces various studies on mining finite state machines that employ techniques such as grammar inference, partial order mining, source code model checking, and abstract interpretation. Remaining chapters focus on mining temporal rules and patterns, including path-aware static program analyses, lightweight rule mining, statistical analysis, and more. The authors discuss employing dynamic analysis, static analysis, and their combinations to mine software specifications. According to the US National Institute of Standards and Technology in 2002, software bugs cost the US economy 59.5 billion dollars annually. This volume demonstrates how specification mining can help find bugs, improve understanding, and reduce financial losses, encouraging industry adoption of these techniques in standard IDEs.