A Reflective Architecture-Aware Framework to Support Software Evolution

Software systems are required to adapt themselves dynamically to the ever changing environment and requirements. Architectural reflection represents a principled means to address adaptively. In this paper, a framework of supporting software evolution based on architectural reflection is proposed. Architecture information is reified as explicit and manipulable entities, which is causal-connected to software implementation and specification. The well-defined reflective architecture model supervises all evolutionary behaviors, modifying and updating running system by using reflection mechanism, ensuring system consistency and integrity. Furthermore, a detailed case study shows the feasibility of our method.