Software Architecture Practices Research Articles

Formal Software Architecture Rule Learning: A Comparative Investigation between Large Language Models and Inductive Techniques

This paper explores the application of inferring software architecture rules from examples using Machine Learning (ML). We investigate different methods from Inductive Rule Learning and utilize Large Language Models (LLMs). Traditional manual rule specification approaches are time-consuming and error-prone, motivating the need for automated rule discovery. Leveraging a dataset of software architecture instances and a meta-model capturing implementation facts, we used inductive learning algorithms and LLMs to extract meaningful rules. The induced rules are evaluated against a predefined hypothesis and their generalizability across different system subsets is investigated. The research highlights the capabilities and limitations of ML-based rule learning in the area of software architecture, aiming to inspire further innovation in data-driven rule discovery for more intelligent software architecture practices.

Software Architectural Practices: Influences on the Open Source Ecosystem Health

The health state of a software ecosystem has been determined by its capacity of growth and longevity. Three health indicators represent a healthy software ecosystem: robustness, productivity, and niche creation. Studies focusing on understanding the causes and processes of the state of health of ecosystems have used these indicators largely. Researchers have intensified studies to understand how to achieve a good health state. Despite the growing number of studies, there is little knowledge about influences and actions to achieve health and, more specifically, that consider the effects of the software architecture on the ecosystem. This article presents a study exploring seven open source ecosystems within different domains to describe the influence of architectural practices on the software ecosystem health in terms of their motivations and effects. Our main goal was to understand how the software architecture and related practices can contribute to a healthy ecosystem. We conducted a netnography-based study to gather practices used to create and maintain the software architecture of these ecosystems. Our study brings evidence that architectural practices play a critical role in the achievement of ecosystems’ health. We found fifty practices that have influenced different aspects of health indicators. We highlight the importance of five influential factors – business goals, experience, requirements, resources, and time-to-market – for motivating the adoption of such practices. These factors may also contribute to understanding different strategies used to achieve a good health state. Moreover, we proposed a novel health indicator, trustworthiness, that accounts for the normal operation of a healthy software ecosystem.

Architecting complex, long-lived scientific software

Software is a critical aspect of large-scale science, providing essential capabilities for making scientific discoveries. Large-scale scientific projects are vast in scope, with lifespans measured in decades and costs exceeding hundreds of millions of dollars. Successfully designing software that can exist for that span of time, at that scale, is challenging for even the most capable software companies. Yet scientific endeavors face challenges with funding, staffing, and operate in complex, poorly understood software settings. In this paper we discuss the practice of early-phase software architecture in the Square Kilometre Array Observatory’s Science Data Processor. The Science Data Processor is a critical software component in this next-generation radio astronomy instrument. We customized an existing set of processes for software architecture analysis and design to this project’s unique circumstances. We report on the series of comprehensive software architecture plans that were the result. The plans were used to obtain construction approval in a critical design review with outside stakeholders. We conclude with implications for other long-lived software architectures in the scientific domain, including potential risks and mitigations.

Design and Practice of Software Architecture in Agile Development

Software architecture design is a very critical part of the software development process. In order to be able to respond to changes in user requirements in software development in a timely manner, a convenient and lightweight development model should be adopted. Agile development adopts a human-oriented, step-by-step development process that can quickly respond to changes in software requirements, adjust the design of software architecture in a timely manner and adapt to software development in a dynamic environment. Based on the analysis and comparison of traditional development process and agile development process, this paper analyzes the key technologies in agile architecture design and proposes a software architecture design method based on agile development mode.

Mining guidelines for architecting robotics software

Context:The Robot Operating System (ROS) is the de-facto standard for robotics software. However, ROS-based systems are getting larger and more complex and could benefit from good software architecture practices. Goal:We aim at (i) unveiling the state-of-the-practice in terms of targeted quality attributes and architecture documentation in ROS-based systems, and (ii) providing empirically-grounded guidance to roboticists about how to properly architect ROS-based systems. Methods:We designed and conducted an observational study where we (i) built a dataset of 335 GitHub repositories containing real open-source ROS-based systems, and (ii) mined the repositories to extract and synthesize quantitative and qualitative findings about how roboticists are architecting ROS-based systems. Results:First, we extracted an empirically-grounded overview of the state of the practice for architecting and documenting ROS-based systems. Second, we synthesized a catalog of 47 architecting guidelines for ROS-based systems. Third, the extracted guidelines were validated by 119 roboticists working on real-world open-source ROS-based systems. Conclusion:Roboticists can use our architecting guidelines for applying good design principles to develop robots that meet quality requirements, and researchers can use our results as evidence-based indications about how real-world ROS systems are architected today, thus inspiring future research contributions.

Design, build, and test drive a FSAE electric vehicle

This study presents a multidisciplinary end-to-end design, build, and test drive experience of a Formula Society of Automatic Engineers (FSAE) electric vehicle. The design team members’ background include computer engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering expertise. Each team member worked on a sub-team namely mechanical, drivetrain, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), and battery management system (BMS). The mechanical team modified/redesigned a gasoline FSAE car frame to accommodate the battery pack, cooling systems, electric drive train, and SCADA hardware. The drivetrain team designed a combinational logic-based tractive system control board to enhance the safety and reliability of the drivetrain. The SCADA team used a model-view-controller software architecture and agile development practices to design and implement a custom electric vehicle operating system and the main brain hardware. The BMS team designed the sensing network and communication protocol to provide an update on the state of the health of the energy source. A thorough description of each sub-system is provided herein. System integration and field test results are also included.

Modelling large-scale information systems using ADLs – An industrial experience report

An organisation that had developed a large information system wanted to embark on a programme that would involve large-scale evolution of it. As a precursor to this, it was decided to create a comprehensive architectural description to capture and understand the system's design. This undertaking faced a number of challenges, including a low general awareness of software modelling and software architecture practices. The approach taken by the software architects tasked with this project included the definition of a simple, very specific, architecture description language. This paper reports our experience of the project and a simple ADL that we created as part of it.

UNIX: Genesis and design features

UNIX was primarily designed by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs. It was, and continues to be, regarded as a seminal contribution to operating systems design methodology, architecture and research. The primary strengths of UNIX lie in the soundness of underlying design principles. This article aims at providing insights into the making of UNIX and in particular, how the notion of open software helped in taking a utility- and tool-driven approach. This approach provides both usability1 and extensibility besides maintainability. In fact, we see that the designers used best software architecture practices. We discuss UNIX shell and its operating environment, kernel, file systems, process creation and management, version management and documentation standard. Every effort has been made to quote from authentic sources to trace history.

The Philosophy of Software Architecture

Computer Software Intensive systems have become ingrained in our daily life. Apart from obvious scientific and business applications, various embedded devices are empowered with computer software. Such a diverse application of Computer Software has led to inherent complexity in building such systems. As civilizations moved forward, the concept of architectural thinking and practice was introduced to grapple with the complexity and other challenges of creating buildings, skyscrapers, townships, and cities. The Practice of Software Architecture is an attempt to understand and handle similar challenges in Software Intensive Systems. This paper introduces software architecture and the underlying philosophy thereof. This paper provokes a discussion around the present and future of Software Architecture. The authors discuss skills and roles of Software Architect.

Software Architecture and Methodology as a Tool for Efficient Software Engineering Process: A Critical Appraisal

The foundation for any software system is its architecture. Software architecture is a view of the system that includes the system’s major components, the behaviour of those components as visible to the rest of the system, and the ways in which the components interact and coordinate to achieve the overall system’s goal. Every efficient software system arises as a result of sound architectural basement. This requires the use of good architecture engineering practices and methods. This paper recognizes software architecture practice as a discipline pervading all phases of software development and also presents an enhanced model for software engineering process which provides an avenue for speedy, efficient and timely delivery of software products to their intended users. The integration of software architecture into the phases of software development process in a generic software life cycle is also contained in this research report. This is to enable software engineers and system analysts to use effective software architecture practices and to employ appropriate methodology during the software engineering process.

The Decision View's Role in Software Architecture Practice

Software development has to deal with many challenges-increasing system complexity, requests for better quality, the burden of maintenance operations, distributed production, and high staff turnover, to name just a few. Increasingly, companies that strive to reduce their products' maintenance costs demand flexible, easy-to-maintain designs. Software architecture constitutes the cornerstone of design, key for facing these challenges. Several years after the software crisis began in the mid-1970s, architecture practice emerged as a mature (although still growing) discipline, capable of addressing the increasing complexity of new systems.

THE ART AND SCIENCE OF SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE

Experience in all aspects of software engineering has confirmed the pivotal role of focusing on architectural concerns in the development of complex software-intensive systems. Consequently, the past 20 years has seen significant investments in the theory and practice of software architecture. However, architectural deficiencies are frequently cited as a key factor in the shortcomings and failures that lead to unpredictable delivery of complex operational systems. Here, we consider the art and science of software architecture: we explore the current state of software architecture, identify key architectural trends, and directions in academia and industry, and highlight some of the architectural research challenges which need to be addressed. The paper proposes a detailed agenda of research activities to be carried out by a partnership between academia and industry. While challenges exist in many domains, for this paper we draw examples from one area of particular concern: safety-critical systems.

Progress of Research on Software Architecture

As an important means to control the complexity of software systems, to improve software quality and to support software development and software reuse, software architecture has become a mainstream research field in the software engineering community. Now, software architecture research not only focuses on the design phase, but also covers every phase of software lifecycle. This paper surveys the update-to-date research and practice of software architecture from a software lifecycle’s perspective, and discusses the potential research directions of software architecture.

WICSA Wiki WAN Party

Researchers, practitioners, educators, and students of software architecture would benefit from having online access to quality information about the state of research and practice of software architecture. In recent years, Wiki technology has enabled distributed and collaborative editing of content using only a Web browser. To explore whether Wiki technology would be effective in facilitating the ongoing discussion and evolution of ideas on software architecture, we hosted the WICSA Wiki WAN Party (WWWP) during the 4th Working IEEE/IFIP Conference on Software Architecture (WICSA 2004). We used a history tool developed at IBM Research to monitor site activity and provide daily feedback to conference participants. This report recounts experience hosting this Wiki site and summarizes the site activity.