Architectural point mapping for design traceability

AOP can be applied to not only modularization of crosscutting concerns but also other kinds of software development processes. As one of the applications, this paper proposes a design traceability mechanism originating in join points and pointcuts. It is not easy to design software architecture reflecting the intention of developers and implement the result of design as a program while preserving the architectural correctness. To deal with this problem, we propose two novel ideas: Archpoint (Architectural point) and Archmapping (Archpoint Mapping). Archpoints are points for representing the essence of architectural design in terms of behavioral and structural aspects. By defining a set of archpoints, we can describe the inter-component structure and the message interaction among components. Archmapping is a mechanism for checking the bidirectional traceability between design and code. The traceability can be verified by checking whether archpoints in design are consistently mapped to program points in code. For this checking, we use an SMT (Satisfiability Modulo Theories) solver, a tool for deciding the satisfiability of logical formulas. The idea of archpoints, program points, and their selection originates in AOP.