Re-architecting a data analysis system to enable pluggable tools and data
J. Scott Hawker, Keith E. Massey, Stanley William Davis · 2002
Formal architectural analysis and re-engineering have allowed us to identify deficiencies in the architecture of an existing system and to remove those deficiencies in a re-architected system. The system is used for data analysis and visualization of very large data sets. The initial architecture made it very difficult to incorporate new analysis and visualization techniques and apply the techniques to new problem domains. A formal architectural analysis helped us identify the deficiencies in the old architecture. Incorporating techniques of component-based architectures built on frameworks of abstract interfaces and component registries, we engineered a new architecture that removed the deficiencies in the old. We are now implementing the new architecture, and our initial results confirm our analysis results: the new architecture is more modifiable and distributable than the old, and it promises improved performance by parallel execution of computation components. KEY WORDS: component, re-engineering, framework, data analysis, data visualization