Automatic Reference Architecture Conformance Checking for SOA-Based Software Systems

Company-wide reference architectures are an important means for standardization and reuse. Standardization is enforced through reference architecture conformance checking. Manual conformance checking is too time- and resource-intensive to be performed continuously for the various systems that are part of a SOA. We present an approach for automatic reference architecture conformance checking of SOA-based software systems. Reference architectures are defined based on rules consisting of roles and of constraints on roles and role relationships. By mapping the roles to the elements of a software architecture representation, reference architecture specifications are reusable for different software systems. Through automating the whole checking process, including architecture extraction, role mapping, and rule evaluation, the approach can be applied continuously for the different systems that are part of a SOA. The approach has been developed and refined by applying it to a SOA in the banking domain. During its evolution from semi-automatic to a fully automatic approach it has also changed the way of how architecture information is provided as part of the system implementation in this domain.