Henry Muccini - Computer Science Department,

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DUALLY Putting in Synergy UML2.0 and ADLs

• Henry Muccini - Computer Science Department,
• Universita' dell'Aquila, Italy
  (muccini_at_di.univaq.it)
• Paola Inverardi - Computer Science Department,
• Universita' dell'Aquila, Italy
  (inverard_at_di.univaq.it)
• Patrizio Pelliccione - Software Engineering
  Competence Center,
• University of Luxembourg (patrizio.pelliccione_at_u
  ni.lu)

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Modeling Software Architecture

• Two main classes of languages have been used so
  far to model software architectures
• formal architecture description languages (ADLs)
• model-based specifications with UML

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Still supported ADLs
Very limited industry buy-in to date
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Problems with existing ADLs 1/2

• ADLs tend to focus on a single area of interest
• analysis (Wright)
• refinement (SADL)
• dynamism (Weaves)
• Within these areas ADLs tend to direct their
  attention to a particular technique
• Wright analysis for deadlocks
• They leave other facets unexplored

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A possible scenario
Deadlock analysis
ADL1
V
Performance analysis
X
ADL2
The deadlock model needs to be manually adjusted
and re-analyzed
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Problems with existing ADLs 2/2

• Specialized semantic basis
• High degree of formality
• Limited tool support
• Lack of lifecycle- wide support
• Lack of tie to requirements
• Limited mechanisms to preserve architectural
  properties in detailed designs and
  implementations
• Limited support for architecture-based evolution

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UML for SA modeling

• Industries still tend to prefer model-based
  (semi-formal) notations
• UML is emerging as the de facto standard design
  notation of choice in industrial software
  development
• Many extensions and profiles have been proposed
  to adapt UML to model architectures

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UML for SA modeling problems

• These extensions permit to reduce the gap between
  UML and ADLs, but they still fail in representing
  all aspects of ADLs
• modeling for documenting is quite different from
  modeling for analysis, and different analysis
  techniques usually require different notations
• Any time a new slightly different analysis is
  required, new modeling concepts are needed
• There is neither a unique language for
  representing SAs, not a unique fit between UML
  and ADLs

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• Can we really advocate a stronger synergy
  between UML and ADLs can be created?

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Dually Putting in Synergy UML 2.0 and ADLs
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Dually Profile
Concept Stereotype Base Class
Architectural Component ltltSA Componentgtgt Component
Relations among SA components ltltSA relationshipsgtgt Depending
Connectors ltltSA Connectorsgtgt Component
Channels ltltSA Channelgtgt Assembly Connector
Package for State Machines Interaction Diagrams ltltSA behaviorgtgt Package
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Extensibility Mechanisms weawing meta-models
MDually
Overrides Operator
Inherits Operator
Rename Operator
MFT
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Extensibility Mechanismswoven model
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• ROSATEA 2006The Role of Software Architecture
  Testing and Analysis
• http//www.di.univaq.it/Rosatea2006/
• Engineering Fault-Tolerant Systems - EFTS 2006