Towards Engineered Architecture Evolution
Sagar
Chaki, Andres Diaz-Pace, David Garlan, Arie Gurfinkel, Ipek
Ozkaya,
Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Modeling in Software
Engineering (MiSE), pages 1-6, May 17-18, 2009
Abstract:
Architecture evolution, a key aspect of software evolution, is
typically done in an ad hoc manner, guided only by the competence of
the architect performing it. This process lacks the rigor of an
engineering discipline. In this paper, we argue that architecture
evolution must be engineered --- based on rational decisions that are
supported by formal models and objective analyses. We
believe that evolutions of a restricted form --- close-ended
evolution, where the starting and ending design points are known a
priori --- are amenable to being engineered. We discuss some of the
key challenges in engineering close-ended evolution. We present a
conceptual framework in which an architecture evolutionary trajectory
is modeled as a sequence of steps, each captured by an operator. The
goal of our framework is to support exploration and objective
evaluation of different evolutionary trajectories. We conclude with
open research questions in developing this framework.
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