Towards an Agent-Driven Software Architecture Aligned with User Stories

Heng, Samedi;Wautelet, Yves;Kolp, Manuel;Scharff, Christelle
(2016) , 16 pages

Files

WorkingPaper2016-3-Heng.pdf
  • Open Access
  • Adobe PDF
  • 972.87 KB

Details

Authors
  • Heng, SamediUCLouvain
    Author
  • Wautelet, YvesUCLouvain
    Author
  • Kolp, Manuelorcid-logoUCLouvain
    Author
  • Scharff, ChristellePace University, USA
    Author
Abstract
Agile principles have taken an increasing importance in the last decades. Software Architecture (SA) definition is perceived as a non-agile practice as it is executed in a top-down manner, reminding waterfall development, and sometimes imposes heavy documentation. This paper proposes to systematically build an agent-oriented SA from a set of User Stories (US), the core artifact to document requirements in agile methodologies. Previous research has allowed to define a unified US meta-model for the generation of templates relating WHO, WHAT and WHY elements. This meta-model’s elements define a syntax issued from practitioners templates associated with semantics from Goal Oriented Requirements Engineering frameworks, more precisely i*. With a set of US following the templates of this previous model, the link between the US and SA concepts is systematically studied and a transformation process is proposed. The SA can decline agent behaviors aligned with requirements and organizational behaviors. Moreover, requirements (thus US) are subject to evolution through agile iterations; the SA can evolve with these changes in a semi-automatic manner. We thus argue that the Agent-SA produced with our transformation process contributes to the overall project agility.
Affiliations

Citations

Heng, S., Wautelet, Y., Kolp, M., & Scharff, C. (2016). Towards an Agent-Driven Software Architecture Aligned with User Stories (Louvain School of Management Working Paper Series 2016/3). https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/179030