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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194 Chapter9. Conclusion<br />
ifthematurityisraisedbytheidentification<strong>of</strong>variabilities<strong>and</strong>theirexplicitspecificationinaproduct-linearchitecture,alargernumber<strong>of</strong>direct<br />
scenarioscanbeclassifiedasconcrete. Thus,amorematureproduct-line<br />
allowsamorecompleteevaluation.<br />
A drawback <strong>of</strong> scenario-based architecture evaluation approaches is<br />
theirhighorganisationalimpactcausedbytheinvolvement<strong>of</strong>thearchitecture’sstakeholdersinajointevaluationsession,whichcantakeupto<br />
severaldays. Inthecase<strong>of</strong>aproduct-linearchitecturethisproblemis<br />
particularlyimportant.Sucharchitectureshavealargerscoperesultingin<br />
anincreasednumber<strong>of</strong>stakeholders.Therefore,werestrictedthenumber<br />
<strong>of</strong>stakeholdersinvolvedinthejointevaluationsession<strong>and</strong>consultedother<br />
stakeholders separately. This significantly reduced the organisational<br />
impact<strong>of</strong>theevaluation.<br />
IncreasedReturnonInvestment Aswehaveseeninthisthesis,theuse<strong>of</strong>MDE<br />
approachesrequiresconsiderableeffortforthedefinition<strong>of</strong>metamodels,<br />
<strong>and</strong>transformation<strong>and</strong>normalisationrules. Forevolutiontasksthatare<br />
carriedoutonaregularbasis,thiseffortmightbejustified.Evaluationor<br />
conformancecheckingareexamples<strong>of</strong>tasksthatarecarriedoutrepeatedly<br />
atdifferentpointsintime. Aparticularmigration,however,istypically<br />
carriedoutonlyonce. Theimprovedreliability<strong>of</strong>anautomaticmigration<br />
basedonMDEispossiblynotsufficienttomotivatetheextraeffortrequired.<br />
Theuse<strong>of</strong>productlinesallowstojustifytherequiredeffortalsointhe<br />
case<strong>of</strong>amigration,asthiseffortissplitovereach<strong>of</strong>theproduct-linemembers.Assuch,theincreasedreturnoninvestmentforproduct-lineassets,suchasarchitecturedesigns<strong>and</strong>implementations<strong>of</strong>architecturalcomponents,alsoappliestothemodeltransformations<strong>and</strong>metamodelsdevelopedfortheautomation<strong>of</strong>particulars<strong>of</strong>twareengineeringtasks.<br />
Asan<br />
example,inthecase<strong>of</strong>themigrationdiscussedinChapter7forwhichwe<br />
definedanapproachthatisdomainspecifictosomeextent,wecouldreuse<br />
theconcernsweidentified,theircorrespondingpatterns,metamodels,<strong>and</strong><br />
transformationrules.<br />
9.4 <strong>Model</strong>-<strong>Driven</strong>Engineering(RQ3)<br />
Ourgoalwastoreducetherisks<strong>and</strong>costs<strong>of</strong>architectureevolution.Tothis<br />
end,weaimedatautomatingoursolutionsusingMDEtechniques.Automationismadepossiblebyconsideringtheinvolvedmodels(inarchitectural<br />
views)asmodelsintheMDEsense,thatis,specifiedusingawell-defined<br />
(atleastsyntactically)modellinglanguage.WithMDE,modellinglanguages<br />
aredefinedusingmetamodels.Assuch,thisrequiresthecreationorreuse
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