Testing and Proving: Strange Bedfellows?

Traditionally (e.g. when using DO-178B), safety assurance has relied on structured and formalized testing, but the limitations of testing are well known. On the other hand, it is not feasible to use proof techniques for an entire application. That's partly a limitation of our proving capabilities, but partly fundamental. For instance, one cannot easily prove that the specification itself is correct or that the hardware operates as expected. So one will always be stuck with some testing. This presentation discusses how testing and proof are used in practice, and considers the issue of how to combine tests and proofs in a single application.