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Context: Software architectures should be evaluated during the early stages of software development in order to verify whether the non-functional requirements (NFRs) of the product can be fulfilled. This activity is even more crucial in software product line (SPL) development, since it is also necessary to identify whether the NFRs of a particular product can be achieved by exercising the variation mechanisms provided by the product line architecture or whether additional transformations are required. These issues have motivated us to propose QuaDAI, a method for the derivation, evaluation and improvement of software architectures in model-driven SPL development. Objective: We present in this paper the results of a family of four experiments carried out to empirically validate the evaluation and improvement strategy of QuaDAI. Method: The family of experiments was carried out by 92 participants: Computer Science Master s and undergraduate students from Spain and Italy. The goal was to compare the effectiveness, efficiency, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and intention to use with regard to participants using the evaluation and improvement strategy of QuaDAI as opposed to the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM). Results: The main result was that the participants produced their best results when applying QuaDAI, signifying that the participants obtained architectures with better values for the NFRs faster, and that they found the method easier to use, more useful and more likely to be used. The results of the meta-analysis carried out to aggregate the results obtained in the individual experiments also confirmed these results. Conclusions: The results support the hypothesis that QuaDAI would achieve better results than ATAM in the experiments and that QuaDAI can be considered as a promising approach with which to perform architectural evaluations that occur after the product architecture derivation in model-driven SPL development processes when carried out by novice software evaluators., The authors would like to thank all the participants in the experiments for their selfless involvement in this research. This research is supported by the MULTIPLE Project (MICINN TIN2009-13838) and the ValI+D Program (ACIF/2011/235).

We conduct a Systematic Mapping Study to categorize the primary research papers in architectural analysis. Systematic mapping studies can change the research perspective in an area and they can help to find the ignored researched areas. The objective of this study is to investigate the techniques used in papers on architectural analysis, identify the current trends, and provide suggestions for the future research studies. We search for papers published within the last ten years in the following databases: IEEE Explorer, ACM Digital Library, Science Direct, and Wiley. We conclude that more validation and evaluation research is needed to provide a better foundation for architectural analysis. Premier Hall Sci & Engn

The thesis work intends to provide architecture for mobile local information search service using Wireless LAN and cellular integration. Search technology has been popular and driving business bodies with increasing e-commerce opportunities. The search technology has been recently brought to portable devices such as mobile phones and PDA devices by extending the research scope. Mobile search revenues are expected to surpass Internet search revenues in near future. Mobile local search on the other hand is getting much popular with growing number of mobile subscribers. Mobile phones have been chosen to provide mobile local search services because of its high possessivity and portable nature. In this thesis work, the author would like to propose a generalized architecture for mobile local information search in a new perspective by involving cellular service provider directly with a minimum co-operation from consumers and retailers. When providing mobile local search services, cellular operator has to maintain a replica of databases of all the existing retailers. Updating the replica at cellular operator at regular intervals has been leading to synchronization problems that produce out-dated results to mobile users. The aspects that have driven the author towards proposing the architecture are solving database synchronization problems and thriving for effective search results. The existing architecture of web search, mobile search and mobile local search are analyzed to identify the domain specific challenges and research gaps. Proposed architecture is designed and evaluated by using an approach called Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM). The architecture is evaluated against its quality attributes and the results are presented. Sridher Rao Sidduri Lindblomsvagen, 97, Rum no 555, 372 33 Ronneby, Sweden E-mail: srsi05@student.bth.se

It is not unusual that software systems are redeveloped when the systems environment changes or new requirements to functionality are found. The reason for this is that system evolution is usually not considered during the initial development of a system. In this report we propose a development process focusing on modifiability in security-safety critical systems. The process is based on the standard IEC 61508 Functional safety of electrical/electronic/programmable electronic safety-related systems and the CORAS framework for model-based risk assessment. We focus on integrating modifiability as a non-functionality and extend the development process with an architecture and design phase. Modifiability is addressed using Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM) and Attribute Driven Design (ADD). An evaluation of this process is given by redeveloping a prototype for an already existing security-critical system using the approaches given by the process. The main result from the evaluation showed that we where able to obtain a higher level of modifiability than the original prototype, without compromising the functionality and safety level required.