Software Architecture Description and UML

The description of software architectures has always been concerned with the definition of the appropriate languages for designing the various architectural artifacts. Over the past ten years, formal or less formal Architecture Description Languages (ADLs) and supporting methods and tools have been proposed by researchers. More recently, UML has been widely accepted in both industry and academia as a language for Architecture Description (AD), and there have been approaches to UML-based AD either by extending the language, or by mapping existing ADLs onto it. The upcoming UML 2.0 standard has also created great expectations about the potential of the language to capture software architectures, to allow for early analysis of systems under development and to support qualities. Furthermore, the latest trends such as MDA and the aspect-oriented paradigm are tightly connected with both UML and AD, thus promoting new approaches which combine the two. This workshop attempted to delve into this multi-faceted field, by presenting the latest research advances and by facilitating discussions between experts.