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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76 Chapter4. Evaluation<br />
4.7 Conclusion<br />
Inthischapterwereportedtheevaluation<strong>of</strong>anembeddeds<strong>of</strong>twarereferencearchitectureusingatailoredSAAM-basedapproach.<br />
Theobjective<strong>of</strong><br />
theassessmentwastoassessthemaintainability<strong>of</strong>thearchitecture.Maintainabilityinvolvedtwoaspects,raisingthescope<strong>of</strong>reusefromaplatform<br />
toaproductline<strong>and</strong>facilitatinganticipatedextensions<strong>of</strong>derivedproducts<br />
<strong>and</strong>futureproducts.<br />
Theevaluation<strong>of</strong>thereferencearchitecturewasbasedonadistributed<br />
SAAM(DSAAM)method, involvingthreephases: apreparationphasein<br />
whichindirectstakeholdersareconsultedindividuallytocollectscenarios,ajointevaluationsessionwithonlyarchitects<strong>and</strong>observers,<strong>and</strong>an<br />
evaluationphase.<br />
Assessingareferencearchitectureisdifferentfromassessingaproduct<br />
architecture. InanordinarySAAMsession,evaluatedscenariosarecategorisedindirectly<strong>and</strong>indirectlysupportedscenarios.<br />
Wesubdividedthe<br />
set<strong>of</strong>directlysupportedscenariosintothosewithevidence<strong>of</strong>beingsupportedbythereferencearchitecture<strong>and</strong>thosewithoutevidence.Thelatter<br />
classtypicallyconsist<strong>of</strong>scenariosforwhichsolutionsareavailableinone<br />
<strong>of</strong>theproducts,butthesehavenotbeendocumentedyet. IntheDSAAM<br />
sessionwedefinedacookbooktocoverthesescenarios.<br />
Theexperienceprovidedvaluableinsightsforindustryaswellasfor<br />
academia. InretrospectwearguedthatDSAAMisasuitableapproachfor<br />
thegivensituation,assessingthemaintainability<strong>of</strong>amaturingreference<br />
architecture.Boththecoverage<strong>of</strong>DSAAM<strong>and</strong>thequality<strong>of</strong>itsconclusions<br />
aretenable.Notethatreference<strong>and</strong>product-linearchitecturesenableefficientreuse,akeybusinessdriverinmanyorganisations.Theconceptsonwhichthistype<strong>of</strong>architecturesarebasedarematuring.Thereforeitisexpectedthatmore<strong>and</strong>morecompanieswilladoptaproduct-lineapproach,<br />
possiblyinvolvingreferencearchitectures.<br />
Océgainedinsightinthepositioning<strong>and</strong>status<strong>of</strong>thereferencearchitectureintheirorganisation,itscurrentposition,<strong>and</strong>itsfutureposition.<br />
Océalsogainedconfidenceinitsmaintainability.<br />
Wegainedinsightintheprocess<strong>of</strong>assessingareferencearchitecture.<br />
Forinstance,scenariosaretypicallyevaluatedbasedonaproductinstance<br />
<strong>and</strong>theresultsareabstractedtothereferencearchitecture. Thisevokes<br />
allkinds<strong>of</strong>questionsrelatedtotopicssuchasconformancechecking<strong>and</strong><br />
documentingdesigndecisions,asdiscussedinSection4.5.
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