Systematic Architectural Design Based on Problem Patterns

Abstract

We present a method to derive systematically software architectures from problem descriptions. The problem descriptions are based on the artifacts that are set up when following Jackson's problem frame approach. They include a context diagram describing the overall problem situation and a set of problem diagrams that describe subproblems of the overall software development problem. The different subproblems should be instances of problem frames, which are patterns for simple software development problems. Starting from these pattern-based problem descriptions, we derive a software architecture in three steps. An initial architecture contains one component for each subproblem. In the second step, we apply different architectural and design patterns and introduce coordinator and facade components. In the final step, the components of the intermediate architecture are re-arranged to form a layered architecture, and interface and driver components are added. All artefacts are expressed as UML diagrams, using specific UML profiles. The method is tool-supported. Our tool supports developers in setting up the diagrams, and it checks different validation conditions concerning the semantic integrity and the coherence of the different diagrams. We illustrate the method by deriving an architecture for an automated teller machine.