Model-Driven Evolution of Software Architectures - Software and ...
Model-Driven Evolution of Software Architectures - Software and ...
Model-Driven Evolution of Software Architectures - Software and ...
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4 Chapter1. Introduction<br />
evolution<strong>of</strong>s<strong>of</strong>tware. Thisinvolvesdifferenttypes<strong>of</strong>s<strong>of</strong>twareengineeringtasks,suchasevaluation<strong>and</strong>migration.Weinvestigatetheextentto<br />
whichsuchtaskscanbeperformedbytheuse<strong>of</strong>modeltransformations.<br />
Additionally,wefocusonreal-lifesituationssuchasthemigration<strong>of</strong>controlcomponentsatASML.Intheremainder<strong>of</strong>thisintroductionwedescribetheproblem<strong>and</strong>formulatetheresearchquestionsthisthesisaddresses.Subsequently,weexplaintheapproachwefollowedtoanswerthesequestions<strong>and</strong>thescope<strong>of</strong><br />
ourwork.Weconcludewithanoutline<strong>of</strong>thisthesis<strong>and</strong>anoverview<strong>of</strong>its<br />
contributions.<br />
1.1 ProblemDescription: <strong>Evolution</strong><strong>of</strong>S<strong>of</strong>tware<strong>Architectures</strong><br />
Inthisthesis,wefocusontheevolution<strong>of</strong>s<strong>of</strong>twareplatforms<strong>and</strong>thesystemstheysupport.Moreparticularly,weaddresstheproblem<strong>of</strong>theirevolutiononthearchitecturallevel.<br />
Perry<strong>and</strong>Wolf[1992]describearchitectureasthe‘load-bearingwalls’<br />
<strong>of</strong>as<strong>of</strong>twaresystem.Assuch,as<strong>of</strong>twarearchitectureallowssomechanges<br />
<strong>and</strong>precludesothers,thatis,itallowssomedegree<strong>of</strong>evolution.Changes<br />
thatitallowsdonotrequireamigration<strong>of</strong>thearchitecture.Changes,however,thatarenotsupportedbythecurrentarchitecturewillrequiresuch<br />
amigration. Assuch,anarchitecturedetermineswhichtype<strong>of</strong>evolution<br />
ischeap(i.e.,thetypethatinvolveschangesthatdonotrequirechangesto<br />
thearchitecture)<strong>and</strong>whichtypeisexpensive(i.e.,thetypethatinvolves<br />
changesthatdorequirechangestothearchitecture).Infact,areasonfor<br />
migratingtoadifferents<strong>of</strong>twarearchitectureistochangethis,thatis,<br />
makingadifferenttype<strong>of</strong>changescheap. Asanexample,intheASML<br />
scenariosketchedaboveone<strong>of</strong>thegoalswasindeedtoreducetheeffort<br />
requiredtochangethesequence<strong>of</strong>themanufacturingactivitiesawafer<br />
scannerperformsforthemanufacturing<strong>of</strong>microchips.<br />
Whenconsiderings<strong>of</strong>twareevolutionfromanarchitecturalperspective,<br />
itneedstobedeterminedifanarchitecturerequireschanges,<strong>and</strong>subsequentlyhowtoperformthosechanges.Theformerrequiresanarchitecture<br />
evaluation. Thelatterrequiresanapproachtomigrateas<strong>of</strong>twarearchitecture,<strong>and</strong>thecorresponding‘downstream’developmentartefacts.Inthecase<strong>of</strong>acomplexarchitecture,oraproductline,whereanarchitectureaffectsmultiplesystems,itpays<strong>of</strong>ftodothisautomatically.<br />
Todoso,an<br />
architecturecanbeconsideredasamodelthatcanbemanipulated. The<br />
technologytomakethishappenis<strong>of</strong>feredbyMDE. In-linewithMDE,we<br />
aimatthedevelopment<strong>of</strong>automatedtechniques,wherepossible.
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