Synthesizing Architecture from Requirements: A Genetic Approach

Abstract

The generation of software architecture using genetic algorithms is studied with architectural styles and patterns as mutations. The main input for the genetic algorithm is a rudimentary architecture representing the functional decomposition of the system, obtained as a refinement of use cases. Using a fitness function tuned for desired weights of simplicity, efficiency and modifiability, the technique produces a proposal for the software architecture of the target system, with applications of architectural styles and patterns. The quality of the produced architectures is studied empirically by comparing these architectures with the ones produced by undergraduate students.

A systematic mapping study of search-based software engineering for software product lines

“…[66,67]), and (iv) performing empirical user studies to compare against manually produced PLAs (e.g. [68]). …”

Interleaving human and search-based software architecture design

“…For example, future evolution scenarios of the system may imply that a certain subsystem, or some parts in that subsystem, needs to be more modifiable. The genetic approach [10] allows specifying even individual operations that are possibly subject to changes in the future, so that the fitness function will take into account solutions supporting the modifiability of that operation. Another case could be that the performance of some subsystem turns out to be suboptimal, and the architecture needs to be revised to fix that.…”

“…The null architecture is basically a UML class diagram of the system. In our approach, the null architecture can be systematically constructed on the basis of sequence diagrams that have been refined from the use cases of the system [10].…”

“…In this paper, we propose a possible approach to interactive search-based software architecture design tool. This proposal is based on our earlier work on genetic software architecture synthesis [10,11], applying genetic algorithms as the search technique. The main contributions of this paper are a characterization of an interactive search-based design process, a proposal for the tool mechanisms supporting such a process, and a small case study demonstrating the potential benefits of the approach.…”

Generating software architecture spectrum with multi-objective genetic algorithms

“…Räihä et al [16,17] have previously studied applying genetic algorithms (GA) with a simple weighted fitness function for this purpose. Their initial tests [18] suggest that it is possible to achieve roughly the level of a third year software engineering student in terms of the overall quality of the genetically synthesized architecture.…”