Software Architecture

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Literature Review contains a complete picture of the related work done including critical analysis of existing software architecture evaluation methods / frameworks used to ensure quality of service in software architecture. It also consists of the limitations of existing models and provides motivation for further research in the same field. This chapter has been categorized into following four sub-sections according to the specific aspects of research domain.

2.1 Quality Attributes and the Quality Model

An important issue in software development today is quality. Nonfunctional characteristics of a component or a system are called quality attribute. “A software quality is defined in IEEE 1061 and it represents the degree to which software possesses a desired combination of attributes “[1]. A software quality model is defined in ISO/IEC Draft 9126-1 [2]. Functionality, reliability, usability, efficiency, maintainability, and portability are the six basic categories of characteristics of software architecture which are divided into sub characteristics according to this software quality model. A large number of definitions of quality attributes exist in literature. For example, maintainability, flexibility, and modifiability definitions are described as follows [3].

“Maintainability is a set of attributes that have a bearing on the effort needed to make specified modifications” [2]. Corrections, improvements or adaptations of software to changes in environment, requirements and functional specification are part of maintainability.

“Modifiability is the ability to make changes quickly and cost effectively” [4]. There are two types of modifications to a system, extensibility, portability and restructuring. Extendibility o...

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... CarrieÁre, ªThe Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method,º Proc. Fourth Int'l Conf. Eng. of Complex Computer Systems (ICECCS '98), Aug. 1998.

[25]. M. Barbacci, S. Carriere, P. Feiler, R. Kazman, M. Klein, H. Lipson, T. Longstaff, and C. Weinstock, ªSteps in an Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method: Quality Attribute Models and Analysis,º Technical Report, CMU/SEI-97-TR-029 ESC-TR-97-029, 1998.

[26]. P.O. Bengtsson and J. Bosch, ªScenario-Based Architecture Reengineering,º Proc. Fifth Int'l Conf. Software Reuse (ICSR 5), 1998.

[27]. P.O. Bengtsson and J. Bosch, ªArchitecture Level Prediction ofSoftware Maintenance,º Proc. Third European Conf. Software Maintenance and Reeng., pp. 139-147, Mar. 1999.

[28]. J.C. Duenas, W.L. de Oliveira, and J.A. de la Puente, ªA Software Architecture Evaluation Model,º Proc. Second Int'l ESPRIT ARES Workshop, pp. 148-157, Feb. 1998.

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