Reconciling the Needs of Architectural Description with Object-Modeling Notations
David Garlan,
Andrew Kompanek and
Shang-Wen Cheng.
In Science of Computer Programming, Vol. 44:23-49, 2002.
Online links:
Abstract
Complex software systems require expressive notations for representing their software architectures. Two competing paths have emerged. One is to use a specialized notation for architecture - or architecture description language (ADL). The other is to adapt a general-purpose modeling notation, such as UML. The latter has a number of benefits, including familiarity to developers, close mapping to implementations, and commercial tool support. However, it remains an open question as to how best to use object-oriented notations for architectural description, and, indeed, whether they are sufficiently expressive, as currently defined. In this paper we take a systematic look at these questions, examining the space of possible mappings from ADLs into object notations. Specifically, we describe (a) the principle strategies for representing architectural structure in UML; (b) the benefits and limitations of each strategy; and (c) aspects of architectural description that are intrinsically difficult to model in UML using the strategies. |
Keywords: Software Architecture, UML.
@Article{Garlan2002b,
AUTHOR = {Garlan, David and Kompanek, Andrew and Cheng, Shang-Wen},
TITLE = {Reconciling the Needs of Architectural Description with Object-Modeling Notations},
YEAR = {2002},
JOURNAL = {Science of Computer Programming},
VOLUME = {44},
PAGES = {23-49},
PDF = {http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/able/ftp/uml01/uml01.pdf},
PS = {http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/able/ftp/uml01/uml01.ps},
ABSTRACT = {Complex software systems require expressive notations for representing their software architectures. Two competing paths have emerged. One is to use a specialized notation for architecture - or architecture description language (ADL). The other is to adapt a general-purpose modeling notation, such as UML. The latter has a number of benefits, including familiarity to developers, close mapping to implementations, and commercial tool support. However, it remains an open question as to how best to use object-oriented notations for architectural description, and, indeed, whether they are sufficiently expressive, as currently defined. In this paper we take a systematic look at these questions, examining the space of possible mappings from ADLs into object notations. Specifically, we describe (a) the principle strategies for representing architectural structure in UML; (b) the benefits and limitations of each strategy; and (c) aspects of architectural description that are intrinsically difficult to model in UML using the strategies.},
KEYWORDS = {Software Architecture, UML} }
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