Specification of Interactions in Integrated Manufacturing Systems * NISTIR 6484

Systems of manufacturing software are often constructed by integrating pre-existing software components. Accurate specification of the component interactions in these systems is needed to ensure testability and maintainability. Moreover, standards for manufacturing systems must specify the interactions to achieve interoperability and substitutability of components. In this report we discuss approaches for specifying component interactions and examine a number of potentially useful specification techniques.