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A Model for Specifying Rationale Using an Architecture Description Language

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Software Architecture (ECSA 2011)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 6903))

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Abstract

Besides structural and behavioural properties, rationale plays a crucial role in defining the architecture of a software system. However, unlike other architectural features, rationale often remains unspecified and inaccessible to tools. Existing approaches for recording rationale are not widely adopted. This paper proposes a simple model for capturing rationales as part of an architecture specification and attaching them to elements in the architecture. The bi-directional links between rationales and elements enable forward and backward traceability. We describe a textual architecture description language named Grasp that implements this model, and illustrate its capabilities using an example.

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de Silva, L., Balasubramaniam, D. (2011). A Model for Specifying Rationale Using an Architecture Description Language. In: Crnkovic, I., Gruhn, V., Book, M. (eds) Software Architecture. ECSA 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6903. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23798-0_34

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23798-0_34

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-23797-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-23798-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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