A towards an extended relational algebra for software architecture

  • Authors:

  • Zude Li;Mechelle Gittens;Syed Shariyar Murtaza;Nazim H. Madhavji

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada;University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados;University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada;University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

  • Venue:
  • ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

Software architecture is often structured as box-and-arrow graphs and has important implications for system development and maintenance. We propose an extended relational algebra to support presentation and manipulation of both architectural structures and implications. The core structure of this algebra is the extended architectural relation (EAR). An EAR is a mapping from an architectural relation (AR) to a multi-set of attributes (M), where the AR is an ordinary relation representing an architectural structure, and the M represents a multi-set representing a type of architectural implication. A set of EAR operations is then defined to support EAR manipulations. The main advantage of this extended algebra over ordinary relational algebras is that the architectural implications (the M part) are presented and manipulated together with the architectural structures (the AR part). This paper first discusses why we propose the algebra, then briefly introduces what the algebra is, and finally describes how to use the algebra in a real scenario.