SoftArch: Tool support for integrated software architecture development

A good software architecture design is crucial in successfully realising an object-oriented analysis (OOA) specification with an object-oriented design (OOD) model that meets the specification's functional and non-functional requirements. Most CASE tools and software architecture design notations do not adequately support software architecture modelling and analysis, integration with OOA and OOD methods and tools, and high-level, dynamic architectural visualisations of running systems. We describe SoftArch, an environment that provides flexible software architecture modelling using a concept of successive refinement and an extensible architecture meta-model. SoftArch provides extensible analysis tools enabling developers to analyse their architecture model properties. Run-time visualisation of systems uses dynamic annotation and animation of high-level architectural modelling views. SoftArch is integrated with a component-based CASE tool and run-time monitoring tool, and has facilities for 3rd party tool integration through a common exchange format. This paper discusses the motivation for SoftArch, its modelling, analysis and dynamic visualisation capabilities, and its integration with various analysis, design and implementation tools.