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1997 Project Summary
MORALE: Mission Oriented Architectural Legacy Evolution
Georgia Institute of Technology
ARPA Order No. D882

Research Data

Related Information /
Project URL:

http://www.cc.gatech.edu/morale -- Additional project information provided by the performing organization

Objective:

The Mission Oriented Architectural Legacy Evolution (MORALE) project focuses on supporting evolution that is driven by a change in the purpose, or mission, of a software system. The key to the approach is exploiting the synergy between requirements analysis, architecture, and reverse engineering. The MORALE suite of tools and techniques leverages this synergy by growing a common model of the architecture for multiple versions of a system. The common model is a basis for assessing the effects of proposed changes and the extent to which the legacy code can be reused.

Approach:

Mission Oriented Architectural Legacy Evolution (MORALE) consists of the synthesis of several components. The first is a mission-directed requirements determination process that, through a systematic process of inquiry and refinement, turns mission-oriented goals into specifications of the desired behaviors of architectural features. This component extends previous work on Inquiry-based Requirements Analysis and the use of schematic scenarios to elicit and formulate requirements. The second component is an architectural assessment process that can ascertain the impact of new requirements on an existing system's architecture. Its focus on the analysis of architectural descriptions in order to determine how well they satisfy a large class of quality criteria. The work extends previous work on the Software Architecture Analysis Method to perform this analysis. The third component is a reverse engineering process for extracting architectural information from an existing system. Beyond the traditional structural analyses provided by existing commercial and research tools, the component extracts behavior information from dynamic analyses of the message flow among architectural modules. This component of MORALE extends previous work on cliche recognition (detection of commonly occurring patterns in code) and interleaving detection (determination of situations in which code implements more than one design goal or requirement). The fourth component suggests ways in which an existing system's architecture can be adapted to conform to new goals. This components extends works using the Structure-Behavior-Function approach to system modelling. The fifth component supports the evolutionary migration of user interfaces between platforms, toolkits, and paradigms (such as text-based to GUI).

Recent FY-97 Accomplishments:

Draft versions of the MORALE process guidebooks written and distributed to three publishers.

Beta version of ISVis (Interaction Scenario Visualization) dynamic program analysis tool released.

GBRAM (Goal-based requirements analysis methodology) completed, validated, and documented. GBRAM is a precursor for Scenic.

GBRAT (Goal-based requirements analysis tool), the precursor to ScenIC View, was completed, used, and validated.

Scenic version 1 defined. An information model for Scenic View was completed.

SBF (Structure-Behavior-Function) schema definitions were refined.

SIRRINE-1 prototype completed.

SAAMTool, SIRRINE, and ISVis interoperation using ACME explored.

Reverse engineering international resource repository defined and created. The repository is designed to contain tools, experimental results and case studies, bibliographies, and educational materials.

Initial MORALE case study completed on the Mosaic Internet browser.

MORPH static detection framework defined.

FY-98 Plans:

Tools development and integration: ISVis public release, SAAMTool Beta release, ISVis-SAAMTool ACME interoperation, SIRRINE-2 prototype, MORPH prototype, ScenicView prototype.

Methodology refinement, validation, and publication: Guidebook publication, SAAM kernel refinement, Scenic heuristics, MORPH dynamic detection experiments, Synchronized Refinement extensions to incorporate domain knowledge and protocol discovery.

EDCS integration: tool interoperation via ACME, SBF/ZD integration, ISVis/Balboa interoperation.

Phase 2 case study: target to be determined.

Technology Transition:

Use of Synchronized Refinement in the development of Software Loader/Verifier by software engineers at TACOM.

Use of Autognostic (SIRRINE precursor) in robot planning at Ulm University.

SAAM is being explored jointly by Georgia Tech and the SEI for purposes of transitioning it to a wider base of industrial applications.

Tutorial presentation of Scenic at CAiSe.

Use of Scenic by CREWS project in Europe.

Principal Investigator:

Spencer Rugaber
College of Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0280
(404) 894-8450
(404) 894-9442 fax
spencer@cc.gatech.edu