Software Quality Improvement via Pattern-Based Model Refactoring

This paper describes an approach to refactoring a software model using design patterns to improve design quality. In this approach, we define a design pattern as a set of three components, a problem specification characterizing problem models, a solution specification characterizing solution models and a transformation specification describing how a problem model should be transformed to a solution model. A problem model is checked for pattern applicability against the problem specification. If the pattern is applicable, the transformation specification is instantiated and applied to the model to incorporate the pattern´s solution properties. The resulting model is a solution model conforming to the solution specification of the pattern. We demonstrate the approach using the visitor design pattern and a distributed monitoring system.