Dependability Patterns: A Survey

Abstract

Patterns embody the experience and knowledge of designers and are effective ways to improve nonfunctional aspects of software systems. Although there are several catalogs and surveys of security patterns, there is no catalog or general survey about dependability patterns. Our survey presented an enumeration of dependability patterns, which include fault tolerance, reliability, safety, and availability patterns. After defining classification groups and showing basic pattern relationships, we showed the references to the publications where these patterns were introduced and enumerated their intents. Another objective was evaluating these patterns to see if their descriptions are appropriate for a possible catalog, which would make them useful to developers and researchers. We found that most of them need remodeling because they use ad hoc templates or no templates. We considered some models from which we can derive patterns and methodologies that incorporate the use of patterns to build dependable software systems. We also provided directions for research.