On-demand quality-oriented assistance in component-based software evolution

Abstract. During an architectural evolution of a component-based soft-ware, certain quality attributes may be weakened. This is due to the lack of an explicit denition of the links between these non-functional charac-teristics and the architectural decisions implementing them. In this pa-per, we present a solution that aims at assisting the software maintainer during an evolution activity on his demand. It requires the denition of a documentation during development, organized in the form of bindings between formal descriptions of architectural decisions and their targeted quality attributes. Through an assistance algorithm, the approach uses this documentation in order to notify the maintainer of the possible ef-fects of architectural changes on quality requirements. We also present a prototype tool which automates our proposals. This tool and the over-all approach has been experienced on a real-world software in order to validate them.