Extending xADL with Statechart Behavioral Specification

Architecture-based analysis and testing of systems plays a key role in increasing their dependability. In order to perform those activities, both structural and behavioral architecture descriptions are needed. In most ADLs, support for representing dynamic behavior at the architectural level is either unavailable or is available only using the particulars of that ADL, thereby limiting its usefulness. xADL, an XML-based architecture representation, provides only structural architectural descriptions, not enough to perform analysis of dynamic behavior. This paper builds upon xADL and an existing analysis tool (Argus-I) to create an approach to xADL’s current structural description features, augmenting it with behavioral specifications, namely statecharts. We believe that architectural analysis tools should be independent of their ADLs. Adding explicit support for behavioral description in xADL is the first step toward proper integration of flexible representations of architectures with flexible capabilities for their analysis and test.