A component-based method for software architecture refinement

As a formal method from abstraction to concretion, architecture refinement gradually becomes an important academic research field of modern software engineering since it was presented. Well architecture refinement not only could ensure the integrity and consistency of software architecture, but also could cut down the cost and improve the quality of software. But the research of stepwise architecture refinement for software architecture is considered to be an underway stage on the facts of the complexity of the conversion from the abstract to the specific architecture. The article illustrates the features and usefulness of component-based refinement method and proposes a novel architecture refinement approach framework. It is based on the component of the architecture and on a series of formal languages for architecture refinement. In this refinement steps, different levels of architecture has been formally refined from points of both structure and behavior, both static and dynamic. A simple example will be illustrated to show the eminent feasibility and effectiveness of this approach with Π-ARL (Architecture Refinement Language).