Visualizing Software Architecture with Off-The-Shelf Components

Software Architecture provides a high-level model of the components and connectors that comprise a complex system. Visualizing both its static description and dynamic execution facilitates understanding of its key properties by software architects. Off-the-shelf components provide a rich foundation on which an advanced architecture visualization tool can be constructed. This paper discusses our experience in integrating a set of off-the-shelf components to create an event-based software architecture development environment that supports the visualization of the description and execution of certain architectures. We discuss the benefits and obstacles of integrating CommonOff-The-Shelf (COTS) components, describe the design and implementation of the visualization solution, and report some experiences from this effort.