Marketing Strategy

Marketing strategy was not something we thought about when the formal methods unit in DTC was put together. And right at the beginning I wasn't there. Still, when I arrived there was something in place, which in retrospect was not far removed. Roger Stokes, our founder, had a simple and clear principle which played a crucial role in the subsequent development of the formal methods team.

The principle was that the formal methods unit should:

work on real problems, with real tools

There were in fact two sources of business. The most significant was CESG, the part of GCHQ concerned with electronic information security. CESG was concerned with setting the standards, and with stimulating the development of capability in UK industry to develop systems meeting the standards. Following the US Orange Book, the UK standards required the use of formal methods, and under some circumstances required the construction of formal proofs.

The second source of business was UK Defence procurements trying to meet the standards set by CESG. The state of the art was such that these developments required some formal modelling, but not formal proof, which was not thought at that time to be practical.