Flexible architecture conformance assessment with ConQAT

The architecture of software systems is known to decay if no counter-measures are taken. In order to prevent this architectural erosion, the conformance of the actual system architecture to its intended architecture needs to be assessed and controlled; ideally in a continuous manner. To support this, we present the architecture conformance assessment capabilities of our quality analysis framework ConQAT. In contrast to other tools, ConQAT is not limited to the assessment of use-dependencies between software components. Its generic architectural model allows the assessment of various types of dependencies found between different kinds of artifacts. It thereby provides the necessary tool-support for flexible architecture conformance assessment in diverse contexts.