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Towards Managing Software Architectures with Ontologies

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Book cover Graph Transformations and Model-Driven Engineering

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 5765))

Abstract

Software architectures are key enabling assets within organizations that develop complex software systems. Among other purposes, software architectures are useful to maintain intellectual control over a software product. We propose a method to continuously check the consistency between a specified architecture model and structural information reverse engineered from the code. We develop criteria that a design language for architectures should fulfill and show that an ontology based description has substantial benefits over the standard modeling languages MOF/UML/OCL. Using ontologies allows the explicit modelling of architectural styles as well as concrete system structures in a single architecture design language. The resulting specifications are modular, compositional and evolvable. Using ontologies we can apply an ontology reasoner to implement consistency checks. Our method integrates previously separate checks such as checking for allowed dependencies and coding style into a single framework and enables more powerful and flexible analyses.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brandenburg University of Technology, Konrad-Wachsmann-Allee 1, 03046, Cottbus, Germany

    Marcel Bennicke & Claus Lewerentz

Authors
  1. Marcel Bennicke
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  2. Claus Lewerentz
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fakultät für Elektrotechnik, Informatik und Mathematik, University of Paderborn, Institut für Informatik Warburger Str. 100, 33098, Paderborn, Germany

    Gregor Engels

  2. Software Systems Engineering Research Group, Brandenburg Technical University at Cottbus, Konrad-Wachsmann-Allee 1, 03046, Cottbus, Germany

    Claus Lewerentz

  3. Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Paderborn, Warburger Str. 100, 33098, Paderborn, Germany

    Wilhelm Schäfer

  4. Fachgebiet Echtzeitsysteme, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Merckstraße 25, 64283, Darmstadt, Germany

    Andy Schürr

  5. Angewandte Informatik I, University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstr. 30, 95447, Bayreuth, Germany

    Bernhard Westfechtel

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Bennicke, M., Lewerentz, C. (2010). Towards Managing Software Architectures with Ontologies. In: Engels, G., Lewerentz, C., Schäfer, W., Schürr, A., Westfechtel, B. (eds) Graph Transformations and Model-Driven Engineering. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5765. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17322-6_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17322-6_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-17321-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-17322-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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