A Tool Chain for Quality-Driven Software Architecting

The quality-driven architecture design and quality analysis (QADA) methodology uses quality requirements as a driving force when selecting software structures. In QADA, the family architecture contains qualitative quality requirements as architectural style(s) and patterns and the quantitative quality requirements as the properties of individual architectural elements. Our tool chain covers all the phases of QADA and contributes to software family engineering by providing methods to select an appropriate approach for family architecture (Stylebase), to capture and map requirements to the architecture (Protege, QPE, TOPCASED), to evaluate the maturity and quality of the architecture (Stylebase, RAP), a technique to represent variation points in the family architecture (QPE, TOPCASED), and a testing approach that can test final software components, ensure the achieved quality level, and produce feedback for the architect (ComponentBee). These tools work under the Eclipse platform and utilise free open source components.