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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58 Chapter4. Evaluation<br />
Onestrategytoarriveatstructuredreuse,istoadoptarchitecturalconcepts,includingproduct-lineapproaches,duringthes<strong>of</strong>twaredevelopment<br />
process.Architecture-baseddevelopmentincreasesdevelopmentefficiency<br />
<strong>and</strong>makess<strong>of</strong>twaresystemsmoreeasytomaintain<strong>and</strong>evolve.Itdoesso<br />
byincreasingtheconceptualintegrity[Brooks,Jr,1975]<strong>of</strong>s<strong>of</strong>twaresystems<strong>and</strong>byprovidingacommons<strong>of</strong>twareinfrastructurewhichmakesiteasiertounderst<strong>and</strong>systems<strong>and</strong>tointegratenewcomponents.Aproductlinearchitectureextendstheseideasbeyondsingle-productdevelopments<br />
toawholegeneration<strong>of</strong>products<strong>and</strong>thusenablesthereuse<strong>of</strong>components<br />
innewproduct-linemembers.<br />
AtOcé,one<strong>of</strong>theworld’sleadingcopiermanufacturers,everycouple<strong>of</strong><br />
yearsanewproductgenerationislaunched,comprisingafamily<strong>of</strong>similarproducts.Tomakedevelopment<strong>and</strong>maintenance<strong>of</strong>thesegenerationsmoreeffective<strong>and</strong>efficientOcédecidedtodefineareferencearchitectureforapart<strong>of</strong>theembeddeds<strong>of</strong>twareinitsproducts.Itestablishesa<br />
commons<strong>of</strong>twareinfrastructurefordifferentgenerations,thusfacilitating<br />
reuseacrossgenerationboundaries.<br />
Since this reference architecture will potentially impact all embeddeds<strong>of</strong>twaretobedevelopedatOcé,thearchitectureteamatOcédecided<br />
to conduct an evaluation <strong>of</strong> the quality <strong>of</strong> this reference architecture,usinganapproachbasedontheS<strong>of</strong>twareArchitectureAnalysis<br />
Method(SAAM)[Kazmanetal.,1996;Clementsetal.,2002b]whichwas<br />
developedattheS<strong>of</strong>twareEngineeringInstitute 1 (SEI).Inthischapterwe<br />
reportonthisevaluation.<br />
Thecontributions<strong>of</strong>thischapterarethreefold.First,weproposeavariant<strong>of</strong>SAAMthatreducestheorganisationalimpact<strong>of</strong>architectureevaluations.Second,weanalysetheimplications<strong>of</strong>evaluatingreferencearchitecturesasopposedtoproductarchitectures.Lastbutnotleast,weshareourexperiencewithconductinganevaluation<strong>of</strong>areal-lifereferencearchitecturethatisactuallyusedinindustry.Thelessonslearntareusefulfor<br />
practitioners,<strong>and</strong>leadtonewresearchquestionsrelatedtoarchitecture<br />
evaluation.<br />
InordertoprotectOcé’sinterests,wecannotdiscussOcé-sensitivedetails<strong>of</strong>thereferencearchitecture.Instead,wewilldiscussamodifiedversion.<br />
Webelievethatthearchitecturalissues<strong>and</strong>theevaluationmethod<br />
arenotmateriallyaffectedbythesechanges.<br />
Thischapterisorganisedasfollows. InSection4.2wesummarisethe<br />
content<strong>and</strong>context<strong>of</strong>theembeddeds<strong>of</strong>twarereferencearchitecturefor<br />
copierengines(hereafterreferredtoas‘thereferencearchitecture’). In<br />
Section4.3,wedescribewhyweselectedSAAMtoconducttheevaluation<br />
<strong>and</strong>whyOcé’ssituationrequiredsomemodificationstoit. InSection4.4<br />
1 http://www.sei.cmu.edu(June2007)
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