Lightweight formalisation of adaptive middleware

• Published in: Journal of systems architecture Vol. 97; pp. 54 - 64
• Main Authors: Rosa, Nelson S., Campos, Gláucia M.M., Cavalcanti, David J.M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-08-2019
• Subjects: Adaptive middleware; Lightweight formalisation; Process mining; Software architecture; Process mining; Lightweight formalisation; Software architecture; Adaptive middleware
• ISSN: 1383-7621; 1873-6165
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sysarc.2018.12.002

The development of adaptive middleware systems is still a challenge due to the complexity of dealing with traditional adaptation issues, such as Why to adapt? When to adapt? Where is the need for change? What kind of change is needed? How is the adaptation performed? The emerging of new technologies (e.g., process mining) and maturation of existing ones (e.g., model checkers) create new opportunities to face those challenges. This paper presents an end-to-end solution for developing adaptive middleware that integrates software architecture concepts, lightweight formalisation and process mining to handle the mentioned challenges. The proposed solution allows developers to build adaptive middleware by working at a high level of abstraction, i.e., at the architectural level. In this way, it potentially reduces the effort to implement the middleware and reinforces structural, safety and quantitative properties at development time and when the middleware is already in execution.