Context: Formal methods (FMs) have been around for a while, still being unclear how to leverage their benefits, overcome their challenges, and set new directions for their improvement towards a more successful transfer into practice. Objective: We study the use of formal methods in mission-critical software domains, examining industrial and academic views. Method: We perform a cross-sectional on-line survey. Results: Our results indicate an increased intent to apply FMs in industry, suggesting a positively perceived usefulness. But the results also indicate a negatively perceived ease of use. Scalability, skills, and education seem to be among the key challenges to support this intent. Conclusions: We present the largest study of this kind so far (N = 216), and our observations provide valuable insights, highlighting directions for future theoretical and empirical research of formal methods. Our findings are strongly coherent with earlier observations by Austin and Parkin (1993).

中文翻译：

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可靠系统工程中的正式方法：对欧洲和北美专业人士的调查

背景：正式方法 (FM) 已经存在一段时间了，但仍不清楚如何利用其优势、克服挑战并为其改进设定新方向，以更成功地将其转化为实践。目标：我们研究形式化方法在关键任务软件领域的使用，检查工业和学术观点。方法：我们进行横断面在线调查。结果：我们的结果表明，人们越来越倾向于在工业中应用 FM，这表明其有用性得到了积极的感知。但结果也表明了负面的易用性。可扩展性、技能和教育似乎是支持这一意图的主要挑战之一。结论：我们提出迄今为止最大的此类研究（N = 216），我们的观察提供了有价值的见解，强调形式方法未来理论和实证研究的方向。我们的发现与 Austin 和 Parkin (1993) 早期的观察结果非常一致。