Model-Based Software Architecture Evolution and Evaluation

The architecture of software systems should be well documented and up to date. Knowledge about the software architecture of a software system enables reasoning regarding the software´s qualities such as modifiability, extensibility, security, etc. However, very often the architecture is only described during the initial phases of a software project and then undergoes progressive degradation. A degenerated architecture description cannot be used for reasoning regarding the qualities of the software, even if it possibly conveys the required functionality. This paper proposes an approach for a continuous model-based monitoring and semi-automatic evaluation of software architectures, meant to support the architecture-based evolution of software systems at various abstraction levels.