Architectural design of a LMS with LTSA-conformance

Abstract

This paper illustrates an approach for architectural design of a Learning Management System (LMS), which is verifiable against the Learning Technology System Architecture (LTSA) conformance rules. We introduce a new method for software architectural design that extends the Unified Modeling Language (UML) component diagram with the formal architectural style of Acme, hence, combines the advantages of the visual appeal of a graphical method and preciseness of a formal method. We propose some new stereotypes for UML component-connector style to incorporate Acme style within UML. A UML meta-model for the design components is also proposed to elucidate the relationships between the components. We also propose a verification method to ensure that the design artifact is holding conformance with LTSA standard. The design process as well as the verification process entails additional knowledge about the domain, which is supplied by the domain Ontology. The LTSA conformance rules, written in natural language, are represented more formally with help of Conceptual Graph representation, before using them in the verification process. Finally, we introduce a verification method that tries to find out a design pattern in the architectural design that conforms to the particular conformance rule intended to check. The verification process also introduces a goodness measure of the conformance.