Software architecture analysis method

About: Software architecture analysis method is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 30 publications have been published within this topic receiving 1604 citations.

SAAM: a method for analyzing the properties of software architectures

Abstract: While software architecture has become an increasingly important research topic in recent years, insufficient attention has been paid to methods for evaluation of these architectures. Evaluating architectures is difficult for two main reasons. First, there is no common language used to describe different architectures. Second, there is no clear way of understanding an architecture with respect to an organization's life cycle concerns -software quality concerns such as maintainability portability, modularity, reusability, and so forth. We address these shortcomings by describing three perspectives by which we can understand the description of a software architecture and then proposing a five-step method for analyzing software architectures called SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method). We illustrate the method by analyzing three separate user interface architectures with respect to the quality of modifiability. >

Scenario-based analysis of software architecture

Abstract: Despite advances in clarifying high level design needs, analyzing a system's ability to meet desired quality criteria is still difficult. The authors propose using scenarios to make analysis more straightforward. In their case study report, they analyze lessons learned with this approach. They developed the Software Architecture Analysis Method, an approach that uses scenarios to gain information about a system's ability to meet desired quality attributes. Scenarios are brief narratives of expected or anticipated system uses from both user and developer views and they provide a look at how the system satisfies quality attributes in various use contexts.

A Tool for Managing Software Architecture Knowledge

Abstract: This paper describes a tool for managing architectural knowledge and rationale. The tool has been developed to support a framework for capturing and using architectural knowledge to improve the architecture process. This paper describes the main architectural components and features of the tool. The paper also provides examples of using the tool for supporting well-known architecture design and analysis methods.

ASAAM: aspectual software architecture analysis method

Abstract: Software architecture analysis methods aim to predict the quality of a system before it has been developed. In general, the quality of the architecture is validated by analyzing the impact of predefined scenarios on architectural components. Hereby, it is implicitly assumed that an appropriate refactoring of the architecture design can help in coping with critical scenarios and mending the architecture. This paper shows that there are also concerns at the architecture design level which inherently crosscut multiple architectural components, which cannot be localized in one architectural component and which, as such, can not be easily managed by using conventional abstraction mechanisms. We propose the aspectual software architecture analysis method (ASAAM) to explicitly identify and specify these architectural aspects and make them transparent early in the software development life cycle. ASAAM introduces a set of heuristic rules that help to derive architectural aspects and the corresponding tangled architectural components from scenarios. The approach is illustrated for architectural aspect identification in the architecture design of a window management system.

Towards a Systematic Building of Software Architecture: the TRIDENT Methodological Guide

Abstract: When designers are facing the question how to build an application architecture practically, they often have to consider various arguments and factors coming from different perspectives: decomposition criteria in architecture design, dialog independence in user interface (UI) design, methodology to follow in a development team. These factors are not easy to conciliate, forcing designers to make trade offs or unbalanced choices. In this paper, we discuss an architecture model, which is part of TRIDENT project, that addresses these issues. It consists of a generic architecture model for highly interactive business oriented applications. It is accompanied with a practical task-based methodology for building an architecture that automatically preserves desired criteria. Assumptions made for the architecture model, its content and the semantics of relationships are explained. The systematic approach is exemplified by a complete architecture case throughout the paper. Software Architecture Analysis Method (SAAM) is finally applied to prove the benefits of this architecture and to evaluate it with respect to relevant criteria. This paper suggest first steps towards a systematic building of a software architecture.