Analysis and design for architecture-based software

Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics , Vol. 16 ,No.4 ,2005 ,pp. 924 ~ 930Analysis and design for architecture-based softwareJia Xiaolin ,He Jian , Qin Zheng & Wang XianghuaSchool of Electronics and Information ,Xi' an Jiaotong Univ. ,Xi' an 710049 ,P. R. China( Received July 25 ,2004 )Abstract :The technologies of software architecture are introduced , and the software analysis and-design process is divid-ed into requirement analysis , software architecture design and system design. Using these technologies , a model of archi-tecture- centric software analysis and design proces( ACSADP )is proposed. Meanwhile ,with regard to the completeness，consistency and correctness between the software requirements and design results , the theories of function and processcontrol are applied to ACSADP. Finally ,a model of integrated development environment( IDE) for ACSADP is pro-posed. It can be demonstrated by the practice that the model of AC SADP can aid developer to manage software processeffectively and improve the quality of software analysis and design.Key words : software process，software architecture , design space , traceability.1. INTRODUCTIONstructure and requirement to implementation smooth-ly1]Software engineering industry has proposed a series ofBefore the software architecture design ，wetheories , methods and tools to solve some problems inshould solve the problems how to define , describe andthe software development process , since the conceptrepresent software architecture ，which were the re-of software engineering was created by NATO insearch targets in 1990' s. Since then ，the researchers1968. However , the problems of long developmenthave developed many special field oriented softwareperiod , high cost and low quality in the software de-architecture description language ( ADL), such asvelopment still exist due to the inherent complexityWright-2] , Darwirf2] , XYZ/ADL3] ,and soon. Inand volatileness of the software. According to a greatdeal of statistics , 70% erroneousness is introduced2000，the computer association has approved theduring requirement and design phase in the large scaleIEEE 1471 standard , which defines the concept ofsoftware development. Moreover ，longer the erro-software architecture , this standard provides unifiedneousness exists in the system , more difficulty it canfile to describe software architecture practice correct-be found , and the cost for correcting the erroneous-1y41.With more and more mature in architecture tech-ness is higher.In order to improve the quality of software renologies，the problem how to integrate architecturequirement and design , software engineering industrytechnologies into software development process hashas brought out the concept of Software Requirementbecome the focus of current software architecture reEngineering and many technologies of modeling. Butsearch. D.J. P proposed architecture centric softwarethere still exists a gap between the requirement andproject management( ACSPM 351. Bass and Kazmandesign , namely , it lacks middle process that can rep-proposed the software development model based orresent the decision making and it is difficult to trans-architecture. These methods and models provideform requirement to correspondent design , therefore ,practitioner with references based on architecture.the concept of Software Architecture came into be-Hov中国煤化Ihe problemns how to in-ing. The researchers are trying to apply software ar-tegra:THCN M H Gion, software require-chitecture to the software development process ，tolenuumcilo allu uclall de:Jesign documents , andbridge the software requirement and design , they arehow to generate traceability of system requirementsolving the problems of transforming the system' swith regard to the architecture 71..as supported by the Shaanxi Provincial Science and Technology Development plan( 2000k08-G12 ).Analysis and design for architecture-based software925Action2. METHODOLOGY FOR ACSADP( 3 St∈Stimulus ( GetFunModel_ A )^ ReceivePerry and Wolf recommended to apply architecture( GetFunModel _A ,St )design in the early stage of the software design. Ac-→Results( GetFunModel A ,St )cording to the respective entity , attribute , relation-End GetFunModel _ Aship，main product and assessment standard in everyFigure 1 ilustrates the ACSADP model we buildphase of the software life cycle , they divided the soft-to represent ACSADP more vivid. It comprises reware development process as requirement analysis ,quirement analysis ，architecture design，and systemarchitecture design , detail design and implementa-design. The description is given as follows for SH ,tiort 81. According to this idea , we propose and buildRes , Act and Cons respectively.ACSADP model , which details the analysis and de-sign process into requirement analysis ，architecture立Domain analysisdesign and system design.Definition 1 ACSADP is a set , which is soft-BusinessFunctionUserware architecture-centric and using iterative and in-[ requirements requirements requirementscremental methods to deduce all the phases and steps↓r二Requirement analysisrequired by the system design from software require-Requirementprocessspecification( RS)↑ment , namely < process| , process2 ... , processn> ,↓and every process; is a < ID, SH; , Res;，Act; ,NoReviewing RSCons;> ,in which :YesID represents the identifier of process; ,and SH;Selectingarchitecture stylerepresents all possible stimulation sequence forprocess; ,a stimulation sequence is a series of single| ConceptModule|| RunningCodeinput for the system , Res; represents process;' s re-viewssponse with regard to SH; , Act; represents semanticArchitecture designdescription for all activities in process; , and defines allArchitecturedescription(AD)map rules from stimulation to response in process; ,Cons; defines behaviour constraint of process. Usual-Reviewing ADly ,it includes initial , previous and post conditions in↓YesSelecting :executing process;. Sometimes , in order to describedevelopment environmentthese three conditions more clear , we represent theconditions as Cons ( init , pre-con ，post-con ), inClass Package| Collaboration | |Statechart Deploy| diagram diagramdiagramdiagram| diagramwhich init ，pre-con and post-con represent initial ,山↓dSystemprevious and post conditions respectively.Designdesign processBy Definition 1 , the formal description of AC-L specification(DS)SADP can be given , generally , we use ID in theabove quintuple to represent a type of elements in theReviewing DS_↓Yesset for this process. For example , pre-con( A ) repre-Iterative andsent pre-con elements in the set for processA. In the中国煤化工following example , the formal description ilustratesYHCNMHGorACSADPthe analysis process in getting model of requirement2.1 Requirement AnalysisA' s functions.SH : Feasibility report of the project , businessType GetFunModel_ A is ReqAnalyserequirement，user' s requirement and function re-Extern Receive( SH : String )quirement of the software project.Publ2衣数振( Res : String )926Jia Xiaolin , He Jian , Qin Zheng & Wang XianghuaRes : According to SH , we generate requirementThe requirement specification can be defined byspecification that satisfies user' s need , and describethe form. Three columns in the form are historicalsystem function ，reliability，design constraint ,main-conditions of the stimulation , current stimulation andtainability , GUI and interface.response. The form can be described by any appropri-Act : We analyze business requirement , user' s ate entity ( from natural language to theory of set ).requirement and function requirement , and verify theTable 1 is a kind of informal specification ,it defines aeffectiveness of the requirement to generate require-user Login System( LoginSys ) based on web. Thement specification that satisfies completeness and con-system uses user name and password as the stimula-sistency.tion , and generates response to verify whether the us-Pre-con : The feasibility report is finished ancer is valid. Requirement 1 specifies the correct responsethe project is feasible.as a result input of the user name and password. Require-Post-con :The requirement specification that sat-ment 2 specifies the corrcet behavior as a result of submis-isfies the user' s need is finished and passes the reviewsion of user name and password. The content in theand verification.bracket needs further definition and refinement.Table 1 A part of the informal specifiation for loginsysRequirementHistoricalCurrentResponseNostimulationWaiting for< Username> and< Username>,Receiving< Username> and< Password>< Password>Inputted< Username> andChecking the validity of Username< Login>< Password >and Password .2.2 Architecture Designent aspect. In this method , concept view mapsSH : Requirement specification of software pro-functions in the requirement specification into archi-ject.tecture elements( i. e. components and connectors )，Res : We analyze and design software architec-and describes architecture elements and their relation-ture according to requirement specification ，and gen-ship ; module view maps components and connectorserate sof tware architecture description using architec-in the concept view into subsystems( or modules ) ,ture description language( ADL ).and describes subsystems and their relationship irun-Act : According the user' s organization , we de-ning view describes the entities and attribute runningcide the architecture of solution in the view of userson the system ; code view maps the entities in theand developer team，and generate the description ofrunning view into deployed component , and describessoftware architecture that meets the requirement ofdeployed component and their relationship. Figure 2completeness and consistency.illustrates the architecture description of LoginSysPre-con : Requirement analysis generates quali-generated by EDAD9. LoginSys comprises threefied requirement specification.components :C( Client type), S( Server type ) and UPost- con : We generate software architecture de( Userinfo type ), among which , C receives , submitsscription that satisfies the requirement specification ，user name and password , and S receives user nameand pass the review and verification of architectureand acewar and rorifw the 1ser ,and U stores user'中国煤化工description.S reese three components isWhen we use ADL to describe architecture , wedeplMHC N M H Gj environment.can adopt four- view method to describe it from differ-Analysis and design for architecture-based software927Component LoginSys ILoginSysImport GetUserName@ Client/GetUsername" ;GetPasswd@ Client/GetPasswd";C:ClientExport CheckUser@ Server/CheckUser" ;GetNameS:ServerU:UserInfoInstGetInfoC:Client;S:Server;Post ( ,-tOutputU: Userver;| GetUserL GetPasswdGetName - -C. GetName;| CheckUserGetPasswd - _C. GetPasswd;GetPasswdCheckUser - S. CheckUser;C. Post - S. GetUser;S. GetInfo --U. OutPut;(a) Graphical configuration description(b) Code descriptionFig.2 The architecture description of LoginSys2.3 System Designfication , CServer accesses the database by ADODBSH :Description of software architecture.( adopting Microsoft IIS platform ). CUserTableRes : We do detail design acording to softwarestores user name and password of the registeredarchitecture description , and generate system designusers. LoginSys has 3- tier structure( representationdocument. The design document describe specificlayer , business layer , and data layer ).platform oriented software architecture , system data ,Presentation layerBusiness layerDate layersystem components , interface and algorithm.< >CServerAct : In the view of developer team , it describesnoguntrer :中GetUser()心Passwd:CString CheckUser(software structure，system data ，system componentC User TabledrUsermaneiVarCheinterface and algorithm , and verifies their effective-ADODBTime: DateTimeness to build complete and consistent system designmodel , and to generate the documents.Fig.3 The class diagram for LoginSysPre con : Architecture design generates qualifiedIn requirement analysis, ACSADP uses thedescription of software architecture.Post-con : We finish the document of system de-standard process based on sequence 11] to obtain soft-sign , and the documents of system design are reware requirement specification. In the standard pro-viewed and verified.cess based on sequence ,analyzers enumerate all possi-In the system design，we use UML to buildble stimulation ( historical stimulation ) orderly , andstatic and dynamic model for the objects and their re-differentiate possible and impossible scene , reduciblelationship in the system , meanwhile , we use the dif-and irreducible sequence. Because every sequenceferent view in UML to describe different characteris-maps to correct response , the reducible rules can i-tics of the systenf10]. In UML , class diagram de-dentify equal sequence. Finally , the sequence thatscribes the types of every object and their static rela-can not be reduced forms correct requirement. Aftertionship , interaction diagram describes the interactiveanalyzers and users review and verify that require-relationship among the objects , state chart diagramment specification can define the system completelydescribe all the possible states the specific objectsand consistently , enumeration is finished. After ana-have and how the events impact the states of the ob-lyzers , architects and designers using enumeration tojects. Deployment diagram described the physical re-中国煤化工tecture description carlationship between software component and hardwaremapetely and consistently ,component. Figure 3 ilustrates the class diagram forsystYHCNMHGbreover , in the processLoginSys. In this class diagram , CLoginFrm is a in-of integrating architecture description , software re-terface for user login based on html ,and it is respon-quirement document and detail design document , weuse dependent and traceable relationship to solve thesible for receive and submit user name and password.CServer r5器5erver end and implement user veri-problems of traceability in the system requirement928Jia Xiaolin ,He Jian , Qin Zheng & Wang Xianghuawith regard of architecture.design space↑4 design space17 System designspace3. THE IDE FOR ACSADP23.1 The Traceability6S1<9.In the analysis and design process of specifie field ori-Fig.4 The extended deign speceented software system, there exist many designchoices. Lane defined these design choices as designDefinition 4DS and DS2 are two designspace and divided the design space into function de-space. If there existsa rule f ,and any a∈DS cansign space and structural design space. In order tcfind aelement binDS2by rule ( (a)= b),then fapply design to ACSADP efectively , we extend theisa kind of map from DSI to DS2 ,defined asf= DS,concept of design space and add dependent relation-→DS2 ,a is sel-variable in f ,and b is the value ofaship to design space.after mapping f.Definition2 In the process of specifice field ori-Therem 1 Suppose DS、is architeture spece ,ented software system，the design choices and possi-and DSp is function design space ,and f is a kind ofble solution are named as design space of the softwaremap from DSp to DSA. So, DS、stisfies the rquire-system ,andit is marked asDS={Fi F2.. ,F,},ment of completenes in DS; ,if and only if any a∈DS;in which,F; is dimensionof DS,and it is the de-and all its dependent clements can be mapped to DSA.scription for certain feature and design decision of theProof Given a∈DSp ,according to Definitionsystem. The pssible methods enumerated by F are4 ,a must have a counter part element in DSA. Given .named as category.any β,a Dep β , according to definition3 , β mustAccording to SADADP model shown in Fig. 1,be in DSp ,acording to definition 4 ,a must have awe can divide the design space into function designcounter part element in DSA. Therefore , DS、satis-space( DSp ),architecture design spacd( DS、),systemfies the requirement of completeness in DSp.design spac<(DS). It is ilstrated in Figure 4,inTheorem2 Suppose DSA is architecture space ,which，DS: is crresponding to systemn reuirementandDSs is system design space ,and f is a kind ofspecification ,DSA is corresponding to software archi-map from DSA to DSs. So, DSs satisfies the requiretecture description , DS, is corresponding to systemment of completeness in DS, ,if and only if any a∈DS,design description. SADPAD is a process that mapsand all its dependent elements can be mapped to DSs.DSp to DSA , and maps DSA to DS, , using iterativeThe method of proof is similar to that of Theo-and incremental method.rem1 ,s0 we omit the proof here.Definitin3 SupposedF; ,F,∈DS ,and F;≠According to section 1 ,ACSADP uses the stan-F. Ifthe valueof F depends on the valueof F.dard process based on sequence to guarantee the re-thenF depends on F:，and it is marked as F, Depquirement of completeness and consistency , and usesF. The dependent relationship of the dimension inreview and verification in the requirement analysisdesign space describes how to implement a system byprocess，the architecture design process and systemcombining many solutions.design process to guarantee the mapping relationshipUsually, F; is not independent in the designbetween DSA and DS; ,DSs and DSA. Acording tospace. For example ,in the function design space , ifTheorems 1 and 2 , we can build the relationship ofsystem response time is required by function dimen-trac中国煤化工nt specification，archi-sion ,it will effect the value of design constraint di-teCN M H G" documents.mension. In architecture design space , if the archi-111 uIc ucoign space，we can trace .tecture style dimension uses Client/Server model , thefrom the project element A to other related project el-component dimension needs the supportclient com-ement B, then there exist the relationship of trace-ponents a啊序数据components.ability between project element A and B.The rlatioship of tracablityt isa kind of reAnalysis and design for architecture-based software929versible relationship , namely，if we can trace fromspecification，architecture description and the rela-project element A to B( ATrace to→B), we can alsotionship of dependency and traceability in the designTrace from.document.trace from B to A reversibl( B一A). In the( 2 ) Requirement analysis toolextended design space , the relationship of traceabilityIt helps designer to analyze and manage require-can be divided into three parts :ment ,and aid designer to generate requirement speci-( 1 ) In the same design space , the dependent el-fication.ements have the relationship of traceability .( 3 ) Architecture design tool(2) The elements in DSF that satisfy the theo-It aids the developer to design and describe therem 1 have the relationship of traceability with theirsoftware architecture , and to build and maintain ar-mapping elements in DSA.chitecture description and the relationship of trace-(3 ) The elements in DSA that satisfy the theo-ability between requirement specifications.rem 2 have the relationship of traceability with their( 4 ) System design toolmapping element in DSs.It supports UML technology , and aids the de-For example ,in Fig.2 , the element F1 in func-velopers to transform the architecture element totion design is mapped to the element A，in the ar-classes and interfaces using object oriented methods.chitecture design space , and the element A1 in the ar-and to build and maintain architecture description and thechitecture design space depends on element A2 , andrelationship of traceability between design documents.the element Ar in the architecture space is mapped to( 5 ) Visual interfacethe element S| in the system design space. There-It implements the integration of various tools to pro-fore , there is the relationship of traceability T1 be-vide users with operation interface of consistent style.tween element F1 and A , relationship of traceabilityBecause there is no software architecture defini-T3 between element A and Si , relationship of trace-tion and methods of formal description in the analysisability T2 between element A and A2. In the inte-and design tools based on UML12] , we design soft-grating process of architecture description , require-ware architecture description language based on com-ment specification and design document ，setting upponent , meanwhile , we have developed visual archi-the relationship of traceability between software re-tecture modeling tools EDAD , and integrated themquirement and architecture element , and between ar-with RequisitePro and Rose. We can obtain the soft-chitecture element and design element , guarantee theware requirement from Use Case diagram in Rose ,correct traceability of architecture description and re-use RequisitePro to generate requirement specifica-quirement document , design document and architec-tion ,use EDAD design and describe software archi-ture description.tecture formally , and use packet diagram and class3.2 An IDE model for ACSADPdiagram in Rose to create design model. In addition ,According to the relationship of dependency andwe develop the knowledge repository to store the re-traceability , we can develop the software to retrievelationship of dependency and traceability. The pro-the relationship of dependency and traceability in thecess is as follows :extended design space. This can aid the developers toWe created requirement feature matrix duringjudge whether the requirement specification , archi-the requirement analysis stage , in which each row oftecture description and design document generated bythe matrix defines a requirement in the system , everyACSADP can satisfy the requirement of complete-requ中国煤化工8 attributes : priority ，ness , consistency and traceability. We have designedstat:TYHCN MH ifficuty ' stablity andACSADP oriented development environment model ,which is ilustrated in Fig.5. The function of everyWe created architecture feature matrix duringpart in the model is listed as follows.the architecture description stage , in which each row( 1 ) Knowledge repositoryof the matrix defines an element of architecture. Ev-It sta瓦数据d manages software requirementery element has the following attributes: type , se-930Jia Xiaolin , He Jian , Qin Zheng & Wang Xianghuamantics，heterogeneity ，extensibility ，limit ，non-comparison framework for software architecture descriptionfunctional attribute ，and traceability. We createdlanguages. IEEE Sofrare Enginering , 2000 , 1( 26):70~ 93.system design characteristic matrix during system de-sign stage ,in which each row of the matrix represent[3] Luo Huajun , Tang Zhisong , Zheng Jiandan. An visualADL: XYZ/ADL( in Chinese ). Journal of Sofreare ,a design solution. Every design solution is described by2000 , 11( 8): 1024 ~ 1029.the fllowing atributes : type , name , function , concur-[ 4 ] Mark Maier W ,David Emery , Rich Hilliard. Software ar-rence , the degree of difficulty , cost and traceability.chitecture : introducing IEEE standard 1471. Computer2001 ,4 34 ):107~ 109.Visual Interface[5] Daniel Paulish J. Architecture-centric software projectRequirementArchitectureSystem designmanagement :a practical guide. Addison Wesley ,2002.analysis tooldesign tooltool[6]Len Bass , Rick Kazman. Architecture-based development.Software Engineering Institute ，Carnegie Mellon Uni-Knowledge Repositoryversity , CMU/SEI- 96- TR- 007 , 1999.System Environment (Hardware and OS)[ 7 ] Christine Hofmeister , Robert Nord , Dilip Soni. AppliedFig.5 An IDE model for ACSADPsoftware architecture. Addison Wesley Longman ,2000.[8] Mary Shaw , David Garlan. Software architecture: per-4. CONCLUSIONSspectives on an emerging discipline. Tsinghua UniversityPress , 1998.We have adopted ACSADP model to analyze and de-[9]He Jian , Fang Dingyi , Wang Zhiming ,et al. Componentsign software and manage process in many large scalebased distributed software architectural description lan-software development , such as ERP system for Xin-guage( in Chinese ). Journal of Xi' an Jiaotong Universi-jiang Kelamayi oil drilling company , mobile and em-ty ,2002 ,6 36):612~615.bedded E- commerce system. Currently these twc[ 10 ]Grady Booch , James Rumbaugh , Ivar Jacobson. The u-nified modeling language user guide. Reading ，MA :systems have been used in practice , and we got highAddison Wesley Longman , 1999.evaluation from uses. The practice demonstrates that[ 11 ]Prowell SJ , PooreJ H. Sequence based specification ofACSADP model strengthens the relationship of trace-deterministic system. Software- Practice and Experi-ability in the software requirement and design result ,ence ,1998 ,3 28 ):329 ~ 344.and improve the quality of software analysis and design.[ 12]Yu Wei , Yang Wanhai ,Cai Xiyao. Research on softwareOur contribution in this paper is the preliminaryarchitecture description ( in Chinese ). Computer Re-research of architecture- driven software developmentsearch and Development ,2000 ,3X 10): 1185~ 1191.methods. The future work include :( 1 ) QuantitativeJia Xiaolin was born in 1963. She isa Ph. D. candi-research in the software requirement and architec-date. Her research interests are software engineer-ture , to set up evaluation system to check how the al-ternation in the requirement impacts on the architec-ing ,information system and knowledge discovering.ture , and to provide decision basis for the alternationmanagement. ( 2 ) Selecting different testing methodsHe Jian was born in 1969. He isaPh. D. His researchinterests are software architecture ，electronic business ,according to different architecture style , to determinelarge scale deployed software analyzing and testing.reasonable architecture testing evaluation system.( 3 ) Implementing form assembly to generate systemQin Zheng was born in 1956. He is a Ph. D. andthrough architecture evolution in the software reuse'an Jiaotong Universi-and making composite components.y.TH中国煤化工CN M H Gie buiness.smobile computing ，REFERENCESsoftr[1 ]Mark Paulk C. Trends in software process and quality.Wang Xianghua was born in 1971. He is a Ph. D.Sofitware Engineering Institute Carnegie Mellon Univer-His research interests are complicated informationsity Pittsburgh , 2002.[2 ]Nenad行A.熬擴c , Richard Taylor N. A cssicatiotio and .processing , software system structure.