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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4.5. Discussion 71<br />
4.5 Discussion<br />
Belowwebothdiscusstheimplications<strong>of</strong>evaluatingareferencearchitecture<strong>and</strong>usingadistributedSAAMapproach<strong>and</strong>weindicatewherethese<br />
leadtosuggestionsforfuturework<strong>and</strong>researchquestions.<br />
4.5.1 ReferenceArchitecture<br />
ReuseLevel InSection4.2.2wepositionedthereferencearchitectureasa<br />
platform.Furthermoreitsbusinessdriverswereallrelatedtoreuse(Section4.2.1).Thereforethepositioningraisedtwoquestions:isthepositioning<strong>of</strong>thereferencearchitecturecorrectforthecurrentsituation,<strong>and</strong>for<br />
thefuture?Ifcorrect,thecurrentreusepositioningasaplatformshouldbe<br />
supportedbylinksbetweenthedocumentation<strong>of</strong>thereferencearchitecture<br />
<strong>and</strong>thedocumentation<strong>of</strong>instantiatedproducts.Inview<strong>of</strong>thereusepositioning,weexpectaconsiderablereductionintheeffort<strong>of</strong>documentinga<br />
productinstantiationcomparedtoasingle-productarchitectureapproach.<br />
Aprerequisiteforthisconjectureisthattheremustbeasystematicway<br />
<strong>of</strong>documentingproductinstantiationswithrespecttothereferencearchitecture.<br />
Itisunclearwhethersuchasystematicdocumentationprocess<br />
exists.<br />
ResearchquestionCanwedefine<strong>and</strong>deployasystematicprocessfordocumentingproductarchitectureswithrespecttoareferencearchitecture?<br />
Inordert<strong>of</strong>indoutifproductinstancesaredocumentedwithrespect<br />
totheirreferencearchitectureinasystematicwayreusemetricsarerequired[Poulin,1997]todeterminehowmuch<strong>of</strong>thereferencearchitecturedocumentationisreusedintheproductinstancedocumentation.Asanexample<strong>of</strong>suchareusemetric,considertwoindicativefigures:therelative<br />
size<strong>and</strong>anormalisedcohesionfactor. Thesizefactorcalculatesthelines<br />
<strong>of</strong>documentation<strong>of</strong>aproductinstantiationrelativetothesize<strong>of</strong>thereferencearchitecture’sdocumentation.<br />
Thecohesionfactortakesthenumber<br />
<strong>of</strong>referencesfromthedocumentation<strong>of</strong>aconcreteproducttothereference<br />
architecture’sdocumentationthath<strong>and</strong>levariationpoints,normalisedwith<br />
thetotalnumber<strong>of</strong>referencesfromtheproductinstantiationdocumentationtothereferencearchitecture’sdocumentation.Alowrelativesize<strong>and</strong>highcohesionfactorindicateahighreusefactor<strong>and</strong>thusasystematicapproachforreusingthereferencearchitectureinproductinstantiations.<br />
FutureworkDefineametrictopositionareferencearchitecture<br />
withrespecttoscope<strong>of</strong>reuse.