Presentation Slides of the Talk Given at APSEC 2017

1. On Adequate Behavior-based
Architecture Conformance Checks
Ana Nicolaescu
Horst Lichter
RWTH Aachen University
Veit Hoffmann
Generali Deutschland Informatik Services

2. What is a Software Architecture (Description)
“fundamental concepts or properties of a system in its environment embodied in its
elements, relationships, and in the principles of its design and evolution” (ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010)
2
Logical/Static View Development View
Physical ViewProcess/Behavior View
Scenarios
Kruchten’s 4+1

3. Conformance Checking?
3
conformance checking = a process conducted to reveal the drift emerged between the intended
and the implemented architecture of a system

4. Static Conformance Checking
4
Cheap
Scalable
Tool-Supported
Complete (in its scope)
Relies on available input

5. Static vs. Behavior View
5
Relation Behavior View Static View
Method Invocation / Instantiation Yes Yes
Extends / Implements / Import /
Variable Access
No Yes
Multi-process / Heterogenuos
Subsystems
Yes No
Remoting (REST, Queue, ...) /
Dynamic Usage (Reflection, DI, ...)
Yes No
Execution Frequency / Time / Order Yes No

6. Behavior-based Conformance Checks
6
● “It is a challenge for dynamic compliance checking to select
the right system execution scenario“ (Knodel et et al., 2008)
● “A challenge faced by any dynamic program monitoring tool
is ensuring sufficient execution coverage” (De Silva and Balasubramaniam, 2013)
● The extracted architectural facts are as good as the code
coverage (Ganesan et al., 2008)

7. Adequacy of Behavior-based Conformance Checks
7
● Behavior-relevant rules
applied on….
● Architecturally-relevant behavior

8. Static vs. Behavior-based Conformance Checking
8
3
1217
ARAMIS Sonargraph
Architect
4 are in the scope of ARAMIS
ARAMIS vs. Sonargraph - number of violation types
file-systems violations
performance issues
use of external dependencies

9. ARAMIS
9
● ARchitectural Analysis and Monitoring InfraStructure
● Behavior-based architecture conformance checking
● Monitor & analyze communication
● Detect violations against specified
architecture rules
ARAMIS

10. Communication Rules in ARAMIS
10

11. Communication Rules in ARAMIS - Example
11
ValidatingMappingAdapting
Extracting
Implemented
Architecture
Description
Communication
Violations
ARAMIS
Workflow
Communication
Rules
Intended
Architecture
Description

12. Communication Rules in ARAMIS - Example
12
ValidatingMappingAdapting
Extracting
Implemented
Architecture
Description
Communication
Violations
ARAMIS
Workflow
Communication
Rules
Intended
Architecture
Description

13. Conformance Checking of ARAMIS
13
MappingAdapting
ValidatingMapping

14. Conformance Checking of ARAMIS
14
Nb. of Rules 19
Nb. of Violation Types 2
Statement Coverage 51%
Relevant Scenarios
Context VarietyScenario Coverage 75%

15. Adequacy of Behavior-based Conformance Checks
15
● Behavior-relevant rules
applied on….
● Architecturally-relevant behavior

16. The Scenario Coverage Metric
16

17. Second Evaluation
17
Scenario Coverage 58%

18. Second Evaluation
18
Scenario Coverage 88% Statement Coverage 34%

19. Conslusions
19
ARAMIS