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A model-driven approach to automate the propagation of changes among Architecture Description Languages

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Abstract

As it is widely recognized, a universal notation accepted by any software architect cannot exist. This caused a proliferation of architecture description languages (ADLs) each focussing on a specific application domain, analysis type, or modelling environment, and with its own specific notations and tools. Therefore, the production of a software architecture description often requires the use of multiple ADLs, each satisfying some stakeholder’s concerns. When dealing with multiple notations, suitable techniques are required in order to keep models in a consistent state. Several solutions have been proposed so far but they lack in convergence and scalability. In this paper, we propose a convergent change propagation approach between multiple architectural languages. The approach is generic since it depends neither on the notations to synchronize nor on their corresponding models. It is implemented within the Eclipse modelling framework and we demonstrate its usability and scalability by experimenting it on well known architectural languages.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Informatica, Università dell’Aquila, Via Vetoio, L’Aquila, Italy

    Romina Eramo, Ivano Malavolta, Henry Muccini, Patrizio Pelliccione & Alfonso Pierantonio

Authors
  1. Romina Eramo
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  2. Ivano Malavolta
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  3. Henry Muccini
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  4. Patrizio Pelliccione
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  5. Alfonso Pierantonio
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patrizio Pelliccione.

Additional information

Communicated by Tony Clark and Jorn Bettin.

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Eramo, R., Malavolta, I., Muccini, H. et al. A model-driven approach to automate the propagation of changes among Architecture Description Languages. Softw Syst Model 11, 29–53 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10270-010-0170-z

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