A Systematic Literature Review on a Decade of Industrial TLA+ Practice
Roman Bögli, Leandro Lerena, Christos Tsigkanos, Timo Kehrer
TL;DR
This paper explores the trend in industrial application of TLA+ by conducting a systematic literature review of its industrial usage over the past decade, and examines whether its promised benefits resonate with practitioners, and identifies challenges that may hinder further adoption.
Abstract
TLA+ is a formal specification language used for designing, modeling, documenting, and verifying systems through model checking. Despite significant interest from the research community, knowledge about usage of the TLA+ ecosystem in practice remains scarce. Industry reports suggest that software engineers could benefit from insights, innovations, and solutions to the practical challenges of TLA+. This paper explores this development by conducting a systematic literature review of TLA+'s industrial usage over the past decade. We analyze the trend in industrial application, characterize its use, examine whether its promised benefits resonate with practitioners, and identify challenges that may hinder further adoption.