A Tactic-Based Approach to Embodying Non-Functional Requirements Into Software Architectures

This paper presents an approach for embodying Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs) into software architecture using architectural tactics. Architectural tactics are reusable architectural building blocks, providing general architectural solutions for commonly occurring issues related to quality attributes. In this approach, architectural tactics are represented as feature models, and their semantics is defined using the Role-Based Metamodeling Language (RBML) which is a UML-based pattern specification notation. Given a set of NFRs, architectural tactics are selected and composed. The composed tactic is then used to instantiate an initial architecture for the application where the NFRs are embodied. A stock trading system is used to demonstrate the approach.