A constructive approach to compositional architecture design

Abstract

Most of today's software systems are large-scaled and have to manage manifold demands. To ease their development, reusable and proven architectural building blocks, for example architectural patterns, are often composed to the desired architecture. Building blocks are specified by their structure and behaviour. Additionally, each architectural building block has specific properties which are interpreted as assurances. Keeping assurances also valid during composition of different architectural building blocks is essential for software quality. This paper introduces an approach which constructs software architectures by composing architectural building blocks and which also assures architectural properties of these compositions. Aiming at a sound approach, a proper description of the different architectural building blocks and their properties is required. Furthermore, this paper presents how to compose architectural building blocks and how to check their assurances. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.