Modeling and Simulating Software Architectures: The Palladio Approach - Hardcover

Reussner, Ralf H.; Becker, Steffen; Happe, Jens; Heinrich, Robert; Koziolek, Anne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 026203476X ISBN 13: 9780262034760

Publisher: The MIT Press, 2016

Synopsis

A new, quantitative architecture simulation approach to software design that circumvents costly testing cycles by modeling quality of service in early design states.

Too often, software designers lack an understanding of the effect of design decisions on such quality attributes as performance and reliability. This necessitates costly trial-and-error testing cycles, delaying or complicating rollout. This book presents a new, quantitative architecture simulation approach to software design, which allows software engineers to model quality of service in early design stages. It presents the first simulator for software architectures, Palladio, and shows students and professionals how to model reusable, parametrized components and configured, deployed systems in order to analyze service attributes.

The text details the key concepts of Palladio's domain-specific modeling language for software architecture quality and presents the corresponding development stage. It describes how quality information can be used to calibrate architecture models from which detailed simulation models are automatically derived for quality predictions. Readers will learn how to approach systematically questions about scalability, hardware resources, and efficiency. The text features a running example to illustrate tasks and methods as well as three case studies from industry. Each chapter ends with exercises, suggestions for further reading, and “takeaways” that summarize the key points of the chapter. The simulator can be downloaded from a companion website, which offers additional material. The book can be used in graduate courses on software architecture, quality engineering, or performance engineering. It will also be an essential resource for software architects and software engineers and for practitioners who want to apply Palladio in industrial settings.

About this title

About the Author

Ralf H. Reussner is Full Professor of software engineering, Chair of Software Design and Quality at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Executive Director of the Research Center for Information Technologies (FZI).

Steffen Becker is Full Professor of software engineering at Chemnitz University of Technology (TU).

Jens Happe is a Senior Researcher at SAP Research and co-founder of the software start-up avenyou.

Robert Heinrich is Head of Quality-Driven System Evolution Research Group at the Chair of Software Design and Quality, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

Anne Koziolek is a Junior Professor of software engineering and head of the Architecture Driven Requirements Engineering Group at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

Review

As software architects, we experience a plethora of technical decisions heavily impacting a systems economy later down the road. Deciding based on best practices and educated guesses alone often feels unsatisfying. The Palladio approach comprehensively presented by this book offers reproducible simulations to measure specific quality attributes that will influence the success of projects.

―Dr. Wolfgang Weck, Professor of Computer Science, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland

The use of models to describe, analyze, and validate designs is a common practice in mature engineering fields. Despite its industrial and social relevance, software engineering has not yet reached a comparable maturity level. This book is a major step in this direction. The comprehensive approach developed by the Palladio team and presented in this book sets the stage for mature, model-based software engineering and distills methods that can become standard practice in the software industry. Every student and professional should read it and learn from it.

―Carlo Ghezzi, Professor and Chair of Software Engineering, Politecnico di Milano

Edition details

• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 026203476X
• ISBN 13: 9780262034760
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400