Archie: a tool for detecting, monitoring, and preserving architecturally significant code

Abstract

The quality of a software architecture is largely dependent upon the underlying architectural decisions at the framework, tactic, and pattern levels. Decisions to adopt certain solutions determine the extent to which desired qualities such as security, availability, and performance are achieved in the delivered system. In this tool demo, we present our Eclipse plug-in named Archie as a solution for maintaining architectural qualities in the design and code despite long-term maintenance and evolution activities. Archie detects architectural tactics such as heartbeat, resource pooling, and role-based access control (RBAC) in the source code of a project; constructs traceability links between the tactics, design models, rationales and source code; and then uses these to monitor the environment for architecturally significant changes and to keep developers informed of underlying design decisions and their associated rationales.