A Systematic Mapping of Architectures for Embedded Software

Context: representing software architectures for embedded systems, together with an adequate development process, configures a fundamental step to enhance the quality of the derived software products. Objectives: This papers aims at presenting a multifaceted characterisation of different techniques used for representing software architectures for embedded systems. Method: A systematic map was built to help the comprehension of how the research community has been investigating and describing software architectures for embedded systems. The identified primary studies were analysed and classified according to three facets in order to characterise the current research and to identify research gaps that shall be explored in the future. Results: the produced map makes explicit the most investigated topics in architecture representation for embedded systems as well as the research needs. It also helps researchers to allocate their efforts to properly represent software architectures as part of an adequate software development process.