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About Lero Research

Lero is the Irish software research centre.It brings together leading software research teams from Universities and Institutes of Technology in a coordinated centre of research excellence with a strong industry focus. Lero has raised the level and profile of Irish software research with such effect that it is now one of the best known and highly regarded software-related research centres in the world.  The centre has the proven capacity to attract and retain global research leaders and to make a substantial contribution both to software-related research and to the Irish economy. The Lero Centre is supported by a Research Centre grant from SFI, by other state grants, by industry contributions and by external funding (particularly the EU’s research programmes). Lero interfaces with a wide range of industry, state agencies, educational bodies and international collaborators to deliver on its twin goals of research excellence and social and economic relevance.

Design requirements for an architecture consistency tool

Abstract

Software architecture and its related documentation are acknowledged as some of the most important artefacts created during system design. However, often the implemented system diverges, over time, from the designed architecture. This phenomenon is called architectural drift and is either a result of inconsistent evolution of the system, or a failure to keep the architectural documentation up to date. A case study, performed at IBM, over two years showed how architectural drift can occur in small development teams over time. It suggested that even when approaches are in place to identify architectural drift, they may prove insufficient for subsequent removal of the drift, and some possible reasons for this were derived. Consequently, this document outlines the resultant design requirements for an approach to inhibit architectural drift, primarily by identifying it as, or before, it is introduced.

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