Affidavit – Automating the Proof of Quality Attributes for Large Scale Software Architectures
Start date: 2010 Expected completion date: 2013
PIs: Mário Zenha-Rela (FCTUC) and David Garlan (CMU)
Dual Degree Ph.D. Students: Paulo Casanova (Software Engineering)
Teams: Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra (FCTUC), Universidade da Madeira (UMa), Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)
Company: Novabase
Website: http://affidavit.dei.uc.pt/
Keywords: Software Engineering; Software Architecture; Human Computer Interaction; Computer Assisted Architecture Development
This project aims to make the current state of knowledge about software architecture design accessible to mainstream system developers by building a framework that will allow architects to investigate the properties of their architectures through architectural simulation and to ensure their correct implementation through architectural transformation. Simulation will support the achievement of quality goals as defined in quality attribute scenarios, by allowing an architect to determine the consequences of architectural decisions, and to make tradeoffs that balance competing quality requirements. Architectural transformation will ensure that the structure and behavior of the built system conforms to the architectural design. This will open the way to computer-assisted design, migration and validation of large-scale software architectures. If successful the project will make a significant contribution to the widespread adoption of sound software architecture practices in industrial software development, through the introduction of principled architectural design techniques and supporting architecture evaluation tools.