Architectural analysis approaches: A component-based system development perspective

Abstract

Component-based system development (CBD) relies on the integration of existing software components to compose systems. These are often black-box components whose functionality and configuration may not match the "ideal" system context. Systematic architectural analysis can ensure that risks resulting from architectural adaptations and trade-offs do not adversely affect critical system qualities (e.g. cost, dependability and system resource constraints). The analysis is likely to reveal not only how well an architecture satisfies a particular system context, but also how change might affect critical system attributes. However, current architectural analysis techniques differ widely in their analytical capabilities and support for reuse-driven development making it difficult for developers to assess their effectiveness in CBD. This paper proposes an evaluation framework based on the design challenges in CBD and uses it to review existing architectural analysis techniques. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.