Constructing a Shared Infrastructure for Software Architecture Analysis and Maintenance

Joshua Garcia, Mehdi Mirakhorli, Lu Xiao, Yutong Zhao, Ibrahim Mujhid, Khoi Pham, Ahmet Okutan, Sam Malek, Rick Kazman, Yuanfang Cai, Nenad Medvidovic

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

    10 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    Over the past three decades software engineering researchers have produced a wide range of techniques and tools for understanding the architectures of large, complex systems. However, these have tended to be one-off research projects, and their idiosyncratic natures have hampered research collaboration, extension and combination of the tools, and technology transfer. The area of software architecture is rich with disjoint research and development infrastructures, and datasets that are either proprietary or captured in proprietary formats. This paper describes a concerted effort to reverse these trends. We have designed and implemented a flexible and extensible infrastructure (SAIN) with the goal of sharing, replicating, and advancing software architecture research. We have demonstrated that SAIN is capable of incorporating the constituent tools extracted from three independently developed, large, long-lived software architecture research environments. We discuss SAIN's ambitious goals, the challenges we have faced in achieving those goals, the key decisions made in SAIN's design and implementation, the lessons learned from our experience to date, and our ongoing and future work.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationProceedings - IEEE 18th International Conference on Software Architecture, ICSA 2021
    Pages150-161
    Number of pages12
    ISBN (Electronic)9781728162607
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Mar 2021
    Event18th IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture, ICSA 2021 - Virtual, Stuttgart, Germany
    Duration: 22 Mar 202126 Mar 2021

    Publication series

    NameProceedings - IEEE 18th International Conference on Software Architecture, ICSA 2021

    Conference

    Conference18th IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture, ICSA 2021
    Country/TerritoryGermany
    CityVirtual, Stuttgart
    Period22/03/2126/03/21

    Keywords

    • architecture analysis
    • interoperability
    • maintenance
    • reproducibility
    • reusability

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