PANDArch: A Pluggable Automated Non-intrusive Dynamic Architecture Conformance Checker

Abstract

The software architecture of a system is often used to guide and constrain its implementation. While the code structure of an initial implementation is likely to conform to its intended architecture, its dynamic properties cannot be fully checked until deployment. Routine maintenance and changing requirements can also lead to a deployed system deviating from this architecture over time. Both static and dynamic checks are thus required to ensure that an implementation conforms to its prescriptive architecture throughout its lifespan. However, runtime conformance checking strategies typically alter the implementation of an application, increasing its size and affecting its performance and maintainability. In this paper, we describe the design of a novel dynamic conformance-checking framework that is pluggable and non-intrusive, thereby limiting any overheads to those periods when checking is activated. An implementation of this framework with Java as the target language and its early evaluation are also presented.