Integrability and Extensibility Evaluation from Software Architectural Models - A Case Study

Abstract

Software systems are composed of components acquired from different sources, e.g. subcontractors, component providers, and open source software providers. Therefore, integrability is one of the most important qualities in software development. Extensibility is especially important in open source software systems because they evolve according to the needs of the user community and often into a direction not originally foreseen. Integrability evaluation refers to testing if separately developed components work correctly together. Extensibility evaluation focuses on how new features, originated from customers' demands or new emerging technologies, could easily be developed and exploited in systems without losing existing capabilities. The impact of changes to the system also has to be estimated. This can be done by a method called IEE, which enables extensibility and integrability evaluation from software architectural models. The contribution of this paper is to introduce the IEE method and illustrate how it is to be used with a real world case study. In the case study, we applied the IEE in evaluating the architecture of an existing open source tool. Evaluation revealed a need to introduce two new extension points to the architecture and also that an integration framework is needed to integrate the tool under evaluation with other supporting tools.

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