A comparative study into architecture-based safety evaluation methodologies using AADL's error annex and failure propagation models

Early quality evaluation and support for decisions that affect quality characteristics are among the key incentives to formally specify the architecture of a software-intensive system. The Architecture Analysis and Description Language (AADL) with its Error Annex is a new and promising architecture modeling language that supports analysis of safety and other dependability properties. This paper reviews the key concepts that are introduced by the Error Annex, and compares it to the existing safety evaluation techniques regarding its ability in providing modeling, process and tool support. Based on this review and the comparison, its strengths and weaknesses are identified and possible improvements for the model-driven safety evaluation methodology based on AADL's Error Annex are highlighted.