Journal Article
A Formal Model for Automated Software Modularity and Evolvability Analysis
Publication Date: 10/1/2012Start Date: 2018-07-30
End Date: 2018-07-30
Publication: ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, Vol. V, No. N, Article A, Pub.
Lead Authors:
YuanFang Cai
Dr. Kevin Sullivan
Neither the nature of modularity in software design, characterized as a property of the structure of dependencies
among design decisions, or its economic value are adequately well understood. One basic problem is
that we do not even have a sufficiently clear definition of what it means for one design decision to depend
on another. The main contribution of this work is one possible mathematically precise definition of dependency
based on an augmented constraint network model. The model provides an end-to-end account of the
connection between modularity and its value in terms of options to make adaptive changes in uncertain and
changing design spaces. We demonstrate the validity and theoretical utility of the model, showing that it is
consistent with, and provides new insights into, several previously published results in design theory