A Software System is Greater than its Modules Sum: Providers and Consumers Modularity Matrix
Iaakov Exman, Harel Wallach · Proceedings/Proceedings of the ... International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering · 2019
Modularity Matrices and their Laplacians enable finding software system modules by a rigorous algebraic procedure.However, Modularity Matrices have up to now focused mainly on structors as providers of functionals.This paper takes a broader view at the software system as a whole.The Software System Modularity Matrix, besides displaying provider relationships, also describes which structors consume functionals provided by other structors.This broader view improves software system design in two ways.First, consumer relationships set realistic expectations for consumer numbers and roles.Second, the Software System Modularity Matrix generates standard design criteria for interacting providers and consumers.This standard System matrix obeys linear independence of its constituent vectors, and block-diagonality of its recognizable modules.The novelty consists of modules being composed into a whole working Software System by means of a limited number of consumers playing the role of module connectors.Modules and their connectors are formally obtained by the same spectral method applied to the respective Laplacian, which obtained provider matrices.This is illustrated by case studies.