Mapping concern space to software architecture: a connector-based approach

ABSTRACT

Concern modeling plays an important role in software design, implementation and maintenance. Hyperspace has provided a strong conceptual framework to separate concerns in multi-dimensional levels. The contribution of this work is to create an architectural element, called a concern connector, to support the implementation of hyperspace in the architectural design phase. The paper makes three basic claims for this idea. First, using concern connectors allows the scope of each hyperslice in a certain concern dimension to be defined and stored. Second, the concern interactions within each hypermodule can be specified in the concern connectors. Third, the association of concern modeling with this distinctive architectural element improves the flexibility of concern maintenance and evolution during the development process. To test these claims the paper investigates the use of concern connectors in a real-world architectural model. The results show how concern connectors implement concern modeling in the architectural design.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.2 Design Tools and Techniques

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
        D.2.11 Software Architectures

General Terms:
Design, Languages

Keywords:
aspect, feature interaction, hyperspace, software connector