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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4.3. EvaluationApproach 63<br />
rentlyinanemergingphase.Assuch,besidesconfirmationthatthereferencearchitectureissuitableforitsintendedpurpose,now<strong>and</strong>inthefuture,<br />
anotherresult<strong>of</strong>itsevaluationistheincreasedawareness<strong>of</strong>thepotential<br />
benefits<strong>of</strong>thereferencearchitecturewithotherdevelopmentteamswithin<br />
Océ.<br />
4.3 EvaluationApproach<br />
Theinitialquestionthattriggeredthisworkwas“Howgoodisthereferencearchitecture?”<br />
Additionallyanotherimportant<strong>and</strong>relatedquestion<br />
wasasked:“Doesthisreferencearchitecturehaveareasontoexist?”The<br />
developmentteammainlywantedtogetconfirmationthatthereference<br />
architectureisuseful<strong>and</strong>thatitis<strong>of</strong>goodquality.<br />
Wefirstdefinewhattheterms‘quality’<strong>and</strong>‘good’meaninthiscontext.<br />
As‘good’isalwaysrelativetoparticularrequirements,thefirststepisto<br />
determinetheserequirementsforthereferencearchitecture,whichwere<br />
unknownsincetheirdefinitionwasneglectedduringdevelopment.<br />
Asthereferencearchitectureisintendedtobeusedforseveralyears<br />
<strong>and</strong>productgenerations,itisessentialthatitsupportsfuturechangesto<br />
itsenvironment<strong>and</strong>newproductrequirements. Thisisthemaintype<strong>of</strong><br />
qualityunderconsiderationintheevaluation.Furthermore,inview<strong>of</strong>the<br />
factthattheobjectives<strong>of</strong>thisarchitectureaspresentedinSection4.2are<br />
centredaroundreuse,theimpactthatfuturechangeswillhaveonthereuse<br />
potentialit<strong>of</strong>fers,isessential. Intherest<strong>of</strong>thischapterwewillusethe<br />
termmaintainabilitytorefertothetype<strong>of</strong>qualityrequiredforareference<br />
architecturedescribedabove.<br />
Thus,thecentralquestionis: “Howwellisthereferencearchitecture<br />
preparedforthefuture?” Asthisfutureisnotalwaysknownatthetime<br />
<strong>of</strong>evaluation,theselectedmethodmustexplicitlyaddressspecification<strong>of</strong><br />
possibleextensions.<br />
4.3.1 Selection<strong>of</strong>EvaluationMethod<br />
A literature overview <strong>of</strong> architecture evaluation methods [Dobrica <strong>and</strong><br />
Niemelä, 2002] was used to select an appropriate approach to answer<br />
thecentralquestionabove. Besidesaddressingmaintainabilityaswedescribeditinthepreviousparagraphs,Océfurtherrequiredthemethod<br />
tobelightweight<strong>and</strong>well-documented. Themethodmusthavealoworganisationalimpactbecause,asthereferencearchitectureisstillinan<br />
emergingphase, itsevaluationmustnotaffectotherprocessesatOcé.<br />
Additionally,themethodmustbeexecutablewithoutadditionaltraining.<br />
Thisrequiresthataclearprocedurefordoinganevaluationbasedonthe
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