The Importance of Architectural Knowledge in Integrating Open Source Software

Abstract

Abstract. Open Source Software (OSS) is increasingly used in ComponentBased Software Development (CBSD) of large software systems. An important issue in CBSD is selection of suitable components. Various OSS selection methods have been proposed, but most of them do not consider the software architecture aspects of OSS products. The Software Architecture (SA) research community refers to a product's architectural information, such as design decisions and underlying rationale, and used architecture patterns, as Architecture Knowledge (AK). In order to investigate the importance of AK of OSS components in integration, we conducted an exploratory empirical study. Based on in-depth interviews with 12 IT professionals, this paper presents insights into the following questions: 1) what AK of OSS is needed? 2) Why is AK of OSS needed? 3) Is AK of OSS generally available? And 4) what is the relative importance of AK? Based on these new insights, we provide a research agenda to further the research field of software architecture in OSS.

How Do Open Source Communities Document Software Architecture: An Exploratory Survey

“…We identified three reasons for this: First, creators of SAD in OSS projects focus on specific use of SAD in OSS development, e.g., the architecture document elements which are directly helpful for the adaptation of OSS, and model, system, and mission description in SAD provides such help for developers to get a quick overview of the system, so that they can decide how to adapt it to different customer needs or deployment environments. Second, the OSS development provides limited incentives for developers to document SA design, and important knowledge on architecture design is mentally distributed over developers [43]. Third, some architecture document elements may not be included in SAD of OSS projects (e.g., concerns, stakeholders, and system-of-interest), but rather in other documents, such as user guide or system introduction.…”

Empirical study of software component integration process activities

“…develop adapters and wrappers to facilitate integration of components. 'architectural model development' [10,24,30,31] architecture plays an important role in CBS development. An architectural model is developed to specify interaction of a CBS.…”

“…Stol et al [30] presented an initial exploratory interview‐based study of software architects to investigate the importance of architectural knowledge in the integration of open source software components. The study showed that system integrators consider architectural knowledge valuable to assess the architectural fit of the component and understand how the component can be used for a CBS.…”

“…Table 1 presents a summary of existing evidence on the key integration process activities during the development of a CBS. Li et al [32], Land et al [33], Ayala et al [34], Stol et al [30] and Kusumo et al [31] observed a number of differences between academic theories and industrial practices in different areas of a CBS development life cycle, ranging from adaptation of traditional development processes to a lack of formal component evaluation and selection processes. To date, a significant amount of empirical research work has been done on identifying challenges associated with the component selection process.…”

Perils of opportunistically reusing software module

“…Most of such reasoning employ architecture centric approach. However, presently there are few well‐established architectural reasoning approaches and need extensive documentation . To overcome this issue, we use design decision that are in the form of relationships between the software structure; where a software structure embodies multiple design decisions.…”