Architectural patterns for problem frames

Abstract

Problem frames provide a characterisation and classification of software development problems. Fitting a problem to an appropriate problem frame should not only help to understand it, but also to solve the problem (the idea being that, once the adequate problem frame is identified, then the associated development method should be available). The authors propose software architectural patterns corresponding to the different problem frames that may serve as a starting point for the construction of the software solving the given problem. It is shown that these architectural patterns exactly reflect the properties of the problems fitting to a given frame, and that they can be combined in a modular way to solve multi-frame problems. Alternative architectures to cope with specific system characteristics (e.g. distribution) are also provided.