Architectural runtime models for integrating runtime observations and component-based models

Abstract

Keeping track of modern software applications while dynamically changing requires strong interaction of evolution activities on development level and adaptation activities on operation level. Knowledge about software architecture is key for both, developers while evolving the system and operators while adapting the system. Existing architectural models used in development differ from those used in operation in terms of purpose, abstraction and content. Consequences are limited reuse of development models during operation, lost architectural knowledge and limited phase-spanning consideration of software architecture.In this paper, we propose modeling concepts of the iObserve approach to align architectural models used in development and operation. We present a correspondence model to bridge the divergent levels of abstraction between implementation artifacts and component-based architectural models. A transformation pipeline uses the information stored in the correspondence model to update architectural models based on changes during operation. Moreover, we discuss the modeling of complex workload based on observations during operation. In a case study-based evaluation, we examine the accuracy of our models to reflect observations during operation and the scalability of the transformation pipeline. Evaluation results show the accuracy of iObserve. Furthermore, evaluation results indicate iObserve adequately scales for some cases but shows scalability limits for others.