Tool support for architecture analysis and design

Abstract

The needs of software architectural design and analysis have led to a desire to create CASE tools to support the processes. Such a tool should help: to document an architecture; to reuse architectural artifacts; to aid in exploring architectural alternatives; and to support architectural metrics. This position paper first presents a set of requirements that an ideal tool for architectural design and analysis, and then presents a tool - called SAAMtool - that meets most, but not all, of these requirements. SAAMtool embodies both SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method) and an architectural description framework which describes architectural elements according to their static and temporal features. The tool serves several purposes. It supports and documents the results of architectural design and analysis efforts at varying degrees of resolution, it acts as a repository of both designs and design rationales in the form of scenarios, it applies metrics to architectures, and it visualizes architectures with respect to architectural metrics.