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Assessing Aspect Modularizations Using Design Structure Matrix and Net Option Value

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Transactions on Aspect-Oriented Software Development I

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((TAOSD,volume 3880))

Abstract

The design structure matrix (DSM) methodology and the net option value (NOV) model have been used before to show how aspects can add value to a design. Following an in-depth analysis of that study, this paper demonstrates how aspects can be beneficial as well as detrimental. The structural transformations involved in aspect modularizations are carefully analyzed in the context of DSMs. This analysis exposes the unique reversion effect on dependencies that aspect modules are known for. To capture that effect within the NOV model, we extend its original set of six modular operators with an additional reversion operator. Using a design case study, its NOV worksheet and NOV experiments’ curves are presented to show a simulation of the evolutionary patterns of modules, including aspect modules. These patterns show how subtle dependencies, or the lack of them, bring down, or up, the value of an existing design. Based on the observations made in this case study, preliminary design guidelines for aspects are formulated.

This work has been supported in part by the National Science Foundation’s grant no. CCF-0347902.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Informatics, Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, University of California, Irvine

    Cristina Videira Lopes & Sushil Krishna Bajracharya

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  1. Cristina Videira Lopes
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  2. Sushil Krishna Bajracharya
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Computing, InfoLab 21, South Drive, Lancaster University, LA1 4WA, Lancaster, UK

    Awais Rashid

  2. University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500, Enschede, AE, The Netherlands

    Mehmet Aksit

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Lopes, C.V., Bajracharya, S.K. (2006). Assessing Aspect Modularizations Using Design Structure Matrix and Net Option Value. In: Rashid, A., Aksit, M. (eds) Transactions on Aspect-Oriented Software Development I. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3880. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11687061_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11687061_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-32972-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-32974-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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