Pattern-based Evolution

Pattern-driven Reuse in Architecture-centric
Welcome
Evolution for Service Software
Aakash Ahmad, Pooyan Jamshidi and Claus Pahl
Presentation Title
[ahmad.aakash|pooyan.jamshidi|claus.pahl]@computing.dcu.ie

Software and System Engineering group
http://www.computing.dcu.ie/~cpahl/sse-group.htm
School of Computing, Dublin City University, Ireland

THE IRISH SOFTWARE ENGINEERING RESEARCH CENTRE

Agenda
- Evolution in Service-driven Architectures

- Related Research - Patterns and Evolution

- Change Pattern to guide Architecture Evolution

- Architecture Evolution-case for EBPP

- Pattern-based Architecture Evolution

- Experimental Analysis & Evaluation

- Conclusions & Outlook

2
LERO© 2010 THE IRISH SOFTWARE ENGINEERING RESEARCH CENTRE

Evolution in Service-driven Architectures
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a business-centric, architectural approach to model
business processes as technical software services to develop enterprise software.

- Service components as the core computational entities (atomic or composite)
- Connectors to establish service-level interconnections (association, composition etc.)
- Configurations to allow topological configuration of components and connectors

Evolution in an SOA goes beyond a more conventional addition or removal of individual
components and connectors.

- Process-centric change in terms of integration, replacement, decomposition etc.

- Process aspects of change management requires an explicit specification of source
and evolved architecture model with appropriate steps to complete the transition.

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The needs for Reuse in Service Architecture Evolution
A continuous change in business and technical requirements lead towards frequent
maintenance and evolution cycles in service software.

…community wide efforts are required to develop processes, framework and
patterns etc., to enable systematic maintenance an explicit evolution for SOAs …
[MESOA 07, 08, 09, 10]

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Related Research - Patterns and Evolution
Evolution in SOAs? Patterns in Architectural Abstractions?
Evolution1Patterns Process Change Patterns
Repository Paths Process-centric Evolution

Evolution Shelf Evolution Styles Process Change Process Mining

MESOA’07’08’09’10

Maintenance, Evolution, Adaptation
Reuse of Evolution in SOAs
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Change Patterns to guide Architecture Evolution
Central Hypothesis: The application of change patterns to architectural transformation supports potential
reuse in architecture-centric software evolution.

Pattern Identification – recurring sequences from Architecture Change Logs [IWSSA’12]
Pattern Specification – once-off formal specification in Pattern Catalogue [SHARK’12]
Pattern Instantiation – multiple instantiations to support pattern-based reuse in evolution.

Pattern-based Evolution Benefits for Pattern-based Reuse

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The Anatomy of Pattern-based Architecture Evolution
Change pattern provides a generic, first class abstraction (that can be operationalised
and parameterised) to support potential reuse in architectural change execution.

𝐼𝑁𝑉(𝑂𝑃𝑅𝑛(𝑎𝑒𝑚∈𝐴𝐸))
PAT<name, intent>: PRE(aem ∈ AE) POST(ae′m ∈ AE).

LERO© 2011
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Graph-based Change Pattern Notation
Pattern Specification – as an attributed typed Graph (.GML) notation.

Pattern Storage – Graph databse using Neo4j graph tuples.

LERO© 2011
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Architecture Evolution Case for EBPP
Evolution Use-case – Component Integration
Inclusion of Customer debt management in existing architecture
- Pre-conditions: architectural context before evolution
- Operationsliastion : individual change instances
- Postconditions : architectural context after evolution

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Pattern-based Architecture Evolution
Step 1: Architecture Change Specification.
Step 2: Change Pattern Retrieval
Step 3: Change Pattern Instantiation

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Step 1: Change Specification
A declarative specification allows syntactical context of architectural change:
i) Source Architecture Model (GS)
ii) Architectural Constraints as pre- and post-conditions (PRE, POST ∈ [CNS])
iii) Architecture Elements (AE) that need to evolved such that AE ∈ GS.

Context Constraints: Gs inv, pre, post -- Constraints specification on architecture model

-- Invarinats for structural integrity of component and connector

inv: Constraints.INV -> forAll(Component.hasPORT >= 1)

-- Preconditions to specify existence of architecture elements before evolution

pre: Constraints.PRE -> exists(Component = ‘BillerApp’)

pre: Constraints.PRE -> exists(Connector(BillerApp, custBill) | Connector = ‘billingData’)

-- Post to specify existence of architecture elements after evolution

post: Constraints.POST-> exists(Component = ‘BillerApp’)

post: Constraints.POST -> exists(Component = ‘custBill’)

post: Constraints.POST -> exists(Connector(billType, custBill) | Connector = ‘getType’)

OCL-based Constraints Specification on Architecture Models

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Step 2: Change Pattern Retrieval
(Root) <relatesTo> [Nodes] :
(ChangePattern) <isComposedOf, ConstrainedBy, Evolves> [Operators | Constraints | ArchitectureModel]

Query - Which change pattern(s) allow integration of a mediator component among two directly connected
components?
01: START pattern = node(ChangePattern)

02: MATCH (pattern) – [:ConstrainedBy] - > (Constraints)

03: – [:Composedof] - > (Operators)

04: WHERE Operators IS NOT Null

05: RETURN ChangPattern.name, ChangePattern.intent, Operators.operatorType

Listing: Cypher Query to Retrieve Pattern Name, Intent and Operationalisation

START - command to set the primary node(s),
MATCH - based on user-specified change constraints respectively.
WHERE - allows for additional conditional checking, while
RETURN - provides the gathered results.

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Step 3: Change Pattern Instantiation

   
 
 
 

- Pattern Instantiation  

- Addition ms : S  GS mt : T  GT
∈
Add<billType • CMP>;
Add<billingType ∈ CON>;
mI : I  GI
Add<getType ∈ CON>

- Removal
Rem<billingData ∈ CON>.

GS S GI T GT
 

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Experimental Analysis & Evaluation

1 Scenario-based Evaluation
- EBPP & TRS Evolution Cases
- Pattern Types & Adequacy

2 Prototype-based Validation
- Automated Pattern-based Evolution
- Survey & Usability Analysis

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Recap
Discover Evolution Pattern

- prototype: G-Pride

Pat-Evol Project
Maintain Pattern Library

- prototype: Pat-Lib

Reuse Change Execution

- prototype: Pat-Evol


Thank you for your attention.

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Pattern-based Evolution

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