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Design by Contract (DbC) or Programming by Contract is an approach to designing computer software....

Design by Contract (DbC) or Programming by Contract is an approach to designing computer software. It prescribes that software designers should define formal, precise and verifiable interface specifications for software components, which extend the ordinary definition of abstract data types with preconditions, postconditions and invariants. These specifications are referred to as "contracts", in accordance with a conceptual metaphor with the conditions and obligations of business contracts. Because Design by Contract is a registered trademark of Eiffel Software in the United States, many developers refer to it as Programming by Contract, Contract Programming, or Contract-First development. The term was coined by Bertrand Meyer in connection with his design of the Eiffel programming language and first described in various articles starting in 1986 and the two successive editions (1988, 1997) of his book Object-Oriented Software Construction. Eiffel Software applied for trademark registration for Design by Contract in December 2003, and it was granted in December 2004. The current owner of these two trademarks is Eiffel Software. Design by Contract has its roots in work on formal