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A Rationale-based Model for Architecture Design Reasoning

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6.6. A UML representation of AREL and eAREL<br />

of an ≪ARtrace≫ indicates causality. The reverse direction indicates the implied dependency.<br />

This relationship is used <strong>for</strong> traceability (described in Chapter 9) and impact<br />

analysis (described in Chapters 9 and 10).<br />

Figure 6.11: ≪ARtrace≫ Stereotype<br />

Figure 6.11 shows the ≪ARtrace≫ stereotype which extends the UML Association<br />

relationship. Using a relationship AE1-AR1-AE2, <strong>for</strong> instance, there are two causal links<br />

or ARtraces depicted by ARtrace1 and ARtrace2. ARtrace1 has a cause of AE1 and<br />

an effect of AR1. ARtrace2 has a cause of AR1 and an effect of AE2. The currFlag<br />

indicates whether this link is current or if it has been superseded.<br />

6.6.4 The AE and AR supersedence stereotypes<br />

Systems naturally evolve during the development and maintenance phases of their lifecycles.<br />

AREL provides the as-is view of the architecture design and decisions. A historical<br />

trace is provided by eAREL to capture evolving elements. Figure 6.12 shows the UML<br />

stereotypes ≪AEsupersede≫ and ≪ARsupersede≫, that extend UML Association to link<br />

current AE and AR to historical AE and AR, respectively.<br />

Figure 6.12: ≪AEsupersede≫ and ≪ARsupersede≫ Stereotypes<br />

The ≪AEsupersede≫ stereotype provides an association between different versions of<br />

an AE over time. A new evolution of the architecture element is a new entity identified<br />

uniquely by the same elementID together with a new version number in elementVersion.<br />

An architecture element contains a history of all its previous versions through a chain of<br />

≪AEsupersede≫ relationships. A current AE has a current ≪ARtrace≫ link with an<br />

AR. Superseded AEs are stored as historical records and they are linked to the current<br />

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