This Amendment to CCITT Rec. X.722 | ISO/IEC 10165-4 contains an illustrative example that demonstrates current best practice in the use of the Z formal description language for specifying Managed Object behaviour. It aims to establish a common basis and understanding of this particular formal approach which will help achieve consistency in similar developments. It should provide a useful starting point for GDMO users wishing to use Z to improve their behaviour specifications.
Formal specifications of MO behaviour are valuable since they are clear and unambiguous. The act of producing a formal specification forces the details of the behaviour to be analysed closely. Thus it can also be used as a tool to identify and correct ambiguities in a specification that will remain in natural language.
This Amendment contains a technical guide on the use of the Z language for defining the behaviour of managed objects which support OSI management interworking. It is informative and not normative. It does not require Formal Definition Techniques (FDTs) to be used to specify MO behaviour. If FDTs are to be used, it does not require Z to be used; other languages such as SDL are also suitable.