Evaluation of Software Architectures under Uncertainty

Abstract

Context: Evaluating software architectures in uncertain environments raises new challenges, which require continuous approaches. We define continuous evaluation as multiple evaluations of the software architecture that begins at the early stages of the development and is periodically and repeatedly performed throughout the lifetime of the software system. Numerous approaches have been developed for continuous evaluation; to handle dynamics and uncertainties at run-time, over the past years, these approaches are still very few, limited, and lack maturity. Objective: This review surveys efforts on architecture evaluation and provides a unified terminology and perspective on the subject. Method: We conducted a systematic literature review to identify and analyse architecture evaluation approaches for uncertainty including continuous and non-continuous, covering work published between 1990–2020. We examined each approach and provided a classification framework for this field. We present an analysis of the results and provide insights regarding open challenges. Major results and conclusions: The survey reveals that most of the existing architecture evaluation approaches typically lack an explicit linkage between design-time and run-time. Additionally, there is a general lack of systematic approaches on how continuous architecture evaluation can be realised or conducted. To remedy this lack, we present a set of necessary requirements for continuous evaluation and describe some examples.

Model-based Confidentiality Analysis under Uncertainty

“…Troya et al [40] give an overview of the modeling of uncertainty. Sobhy et al [39] provide an overview of the handling of uncertainty in the analysis of software architecture. Values such as the probability that a particular component is used, or the reliability of a component contribute to the analysis of uncertainty [14].…”

“…The handling of uncertainty can either be included as part of the analysis in a white-box manner or delegated to an uncertainty-aware framework [1]. Although uncertainty-aware analyses of software architectures exist [11], they usually focus on other quality properties like performance [39] or are limited to selected uncertainty types [7]. There is also an approach to combine confidentiality analysis with uncertainty [45], but due to its black-box nature, this approach lacks precision.…”