Authors:
Lukas Holy
;
Jaroslav Snajberk
and
Premek Brada
Affiliation:
University of West Bohemia, Czech Republic
Keyword(s):
Visualization, Model Analysis, Software Components, Tools, Reverse Engineering.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Abstract Data Visualization
;
Computer Vision, Visualization and Computer Graphics
;
General Data Visualization
;
Interpretation and Evaluation Methods
;
Software Visualization
;
Visualization Applications
;
Visualization Tools and Systems for Simulation and Modeling
Abstract:
There are many software architecture modeling tools and their use is very common in practice. But a closer look reveals that in the ever more important area of component-based architectures, system architects or component assemblers are constrained by the lack of good model representations. On one hand, a generic representation like UML provides insufficient support for component-specific needs, on the other hand, tools focused on component development sometimes force the user to learn new visual syntax specific for the component model. Advanced features offered by the tools on top of basic architecture visualization are often limited. In this paper we propose a set of criteria for the evaluation of tools for component architecture visualization, considering the needs of both architectural modeling and analytical tasks. These criteria are thoroughly discussed and their use is shown on a case study which evaluates a current state of the art tool.