Hierarchical Reflexion Models

The reflexion model originally proposed by Murphy and Notkin allows one to structurally validate a descriptive or prescriptive architecture model against a source model. First, the entities in the source model are mapped onto the architectural model, then discrepancies between the architecture model and source model are computed automatically. The original reflexion model allows an analyst to specify only non-hierarchical architecture models, which is insufficient for larger systems that are decomposed into hierarchical subsystems. This paper extends the original reflexion model to hierarchical architecture models, describes a method to apply this technique, and reports on case studies conducted on two large-scale and complex applications (namely, the C compiler sdcc for 8-bit microprocessors and the GNU C compiler gcc).