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Towards Assurance-Driven Architectural Decomposition of Software Systems

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Computer Safety, Reliability, and Security. SAFECOMP 2021 Workshops (SAFECOMP 2021)

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Abstract

Computer systems are so complex, so they are usually designed and analyzed in terms of layers of abstraction. Complexity is still a challenge facing logical reasoning tools that are used to find software design flaws and implementation bugs. Abstraction is also a common technique for scaling those tools to more complex systems. However, the abstractions used in the design phase of systems are in many cases different from those used for assurance. In this paper we argue that different software quality assurance techniques operate on different aspects of software systems. To facilitate assurance, and for a smooth integration of assurance tools into the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), we present a 4-dimensional meta-architecture that separates computational, coordination, and stateful software artifacts early on in the design stage. We enumerate some of the design and assurance challenges that can be addressed by this meta-architecture, and demonstrate it on the high-level design of a simple file system.

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Acknowledgments

The author thanks the anonymous reviewers for their feedback and insightful suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Ramy Shahin

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  1. Ramy Shahin
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Correspondence to Ramy Shahin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of York, York, UK

    Ibrahim Habli

  2. Human Factors Everywhere Ltd., Woking, UK

    Mark Sujan

  3. University of York, York, UK

    Simos Gerasimou

  4. AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Vienna, Austria

    Erwin Schoitsch

  5. Thales Deutschland GmbH, Ditzingen, Germany

    Friedemann Bitsch

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Shahin, R. (2021). Towards Assurance-Driven Architectural Decomposition of Software Systems. In: Habli, I., Sujan, M., Gerasimou, S., Schoitsch, E., Bitsch, F. (eds) Computer Safety, Reliability, and Security. SAFECOMP 2021 Workshops. SAFECOMP 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12853. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83906-2_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83906-2_15

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-83905-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-83906-2

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