An Approach for Combining Model-Based and Scenario-based Software Architecture Analysis

Software architecture analysis is a central activity in software development. Multiple software architecture analysis techniques exist, which differ in cost and complexity, the addressed stakeholders and the supported kinds of analysis. To support comprehensive software architecture analysis, multiple analysis techniques need to be applied within one project. Currently available techniques are not integrated with each other and require the use of different processes, tools, and of different means for architecture representation. This makes the application of different, though potentially complementing analysis techniques time- and resource-intensive, and thus costly. In this paper we present an approach that combines multiple analysis techniques to support comprehensive, integrated and cost-efficient software architecture analysis. Our approach combines analysis functionality provided by software architecture management tools, architecture description languages, and scenario-based analysis techniques.