Software Architecture Modeling & Analysis: A Rigorous Approach

In this overview paper, we outline a tool supported approach to the design and analysis of complex systems at the architectural level. The foundations of this approach are the use of the architectural description language Darwin to capture structural information about components and their interconnection and the use of a process algebra FSP to describe the behaviour of individual components. These descriptions are combined to construct a system behavioural model that can be animated to validate requirements and model checked against properties specified in Linear Temporal Logic. Recently, this foundation has been extended with work on the synthesis of behavioural models from scenarios captured as message sequence charts (MSC). Models described in this way can be used as an initial basis for validating requirements and as a specification that must be satisfied by more detailed models. The approach we outline is supported by the Labelled Transition system Analyser (LTSA) tool, which has been extended to deal with MSCs.