A Social Organization Perspective on Software Architecture

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A Social Organization Perspective on Software
Architecture

• Manuel Kolp Jaelson Castro John Mylopoulos

Department of Computer Science University of
Toronto Toronto M5S 3G4, Canada
Centro de Informática Universidade Federal de
Pernambuco Recife 50732-970, Brazil
STRAW01 - May 14 2001, Toronto, Canada
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Motivation

• Narrowing the gap requirements gtlt architectures
• Same concepts for requirements and architectures
• Software architecture as social organization
• Coordinated autonomous components with goals to
  fulfil and social inter-dependencies ( i )
• Concepts from organization theory
• Evaluated WRT a set of software quality
  attributes
• Part of TROPOS (http//www.cs.toronto.edu/km/trop
  os)

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Organization Theory

• Mintzberg, Scott, Galbraith,
• Studies alternatives and models for (business)
  organizations
• Used to model the coordination of business
  stakeholders -- individuals, physical or social
  systems -- to achieve common (business) goals.
• Structure in 5, Pyramid, Takeover, Joint Venture,
  Cooptation, Hierarchical Contracting, Vertical
  Integration, Bidding, Merger, Equity Agreement,
  Virtual Organization,

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Structure in 5

• Strategic and logistic components found in
  organizations.
• Operational core basic operations -- the input,
  processing, output associated with running the
  organization.
• Strategic apex executive, strategic decisions.
• Support Assists the operation core for
  non-operational services outside the basic flow
  of operational procedures.
• Technostructure standardizes the behavior of
  other components, help the system adapt to its
  environment.
• Middle line Actors who join the apex to the
  core.

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Structure in 5 in i and Telos
TELL CLASS StructureIn5MetaClass IN Class WITH
/Class is a MetaMetaClass/ attribute
name String part, exclusivePart,
dependentPart ApexMetaClass
Class CoordinationMetaClass
Class MiddleAgencyMetaClass
Class SupportMetaClass Class OperationalCor
eMetaClass Class END StructureIn5MetaClass
In i
In Telos
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Joint Venture in i and Telos
TELL CLASS JointVentureMetaClass IN Class WITH
/Class is a MetaMetaClass/ attribute
name String part, exclusivePart,
dependentPart JointManagementMetaClass
Class part, exclusivePart /exclusive and
independent part/ PrincipalPartnerMetaClass
Class part /shared and independent
part/ SecondaryPartnerMetaClass Class END
JointVentureMetaClass In Telos
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Quality Attributes
Predictability, Security, Adaptability,
Cooperativity, Competitivity, Availability,
Integrity, Modularity, Aggregability
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Example
A Classical mobile robot layered architecture
Information exchange not always
straight-forward Often need to establish direct
communication Data and control hierarchies not
separated Prevent the dynamic manipulation of
components
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Mobile Robot Architecture Structure-in-5
More distributed architecture
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Selecting Architecture for an E-com System
From Security, Availability, Adaptability
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A Joint-Venture E-commerce Architecture
E-business classical styles on web, protocols,
technologies Not on business processes, NFRs No
organization of the architecture, conceptual
high-level perspective
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Conclusion

• Software architectures described with concepts
  from requirements modeling
• -gt Narrows the gap requirements / architecture
• Architectures as social and intentional
  structures
• Best suited to open, dynamic and distributed
  applications
• In progress
• Formalizing the style, Instantiation of a style
  ??
• Macro and micro levels
• Social Patterns broker, mediator, embassy, ...