Developing a software Architecture Comparison Analysis Method for Critical Systems at International Airports
Journal of ACS Advances in Computer Science · 2010
Software Architecture Comparison Analysis Methods provide organizations with arationale for an architecture selection process by comparing the fitness of softwarearchitecture candidates for required systems. Comparing software architectures forany nontrivial system is a difficult task. Software architectures are designed withparticular requirements and constraints, and are often poorly documented.With the lack of data about software architecture, developing comparison methodsbased on a black box approach is considered very helpful, and architectures can becompared based on a set of criteria derived from the business goals of anorganization.A popular method for comparing software architectures as black box is theSoftware Architecture Comparison Analysis Method (SACAM) developed by theSoftware Engineering Institute (SEI). SACAM compares the architectures ofsoftware systems and not the implementation code. SACAM does not addressenterprise architecture issues such as the implemented software evolution andmaintenance.This paper discusses and presents a proposed adaptation of SACAM to be appliedin the context of critical socio-technical systems where issues of architectureevolution and maintenance are considered important factors in selecting a strategyfor software modernization. The proposed method is called software ArchitectureComparison Analysis Method for Critical Systems (SACAM-CS). SACAM-CS isan architecture selection method based on multi-criteria decision analysis. Theproposed method has been validated using a suitable case study to compare amongtwo check-in systems used in international airports. The purpose of the case studyis to investigate, examine, analyze, and develop model architecture to comparebetween two check-in systems with regard to evaluation of process improvement. Moreover, the case study aims to analyzing the impacts of conventional check-insystem and self-Service Technology at Cairo International Airport throughidentification of measures and methods for success evaluation. The mainmethodology is to use empirical data from Cairo International Airport accompaniedby research, as an input for suggesting proposals for improvement and discussingnew model architecture for future research in Aeronautical software not addressedby e.g. traditional comparative analysis of software theory or comparative study ofsoftware architecture analysis research.