Static and Dynamic Architecture Conformance Checking: A Systematic, Case Study-Based Analysis on Tradeoffs and Synergies

In order to uncover architectural drift, a plethora of architecture conformance checking tools has been proposed that mainly leverage two approaches: they extract architectural knowledge based on either source code artifacts (static approach) or run-time behavior (dynamic approach). Although both approaches have been evaluated separately, no up-to-date analysis of their relative strengths and weaknesses, nor realworld comparative case studies of the two were published. In this paper we address this issue by presenting the results of a direct comparison of both approaches. We first identify and compare their strengths and weaknesses on a theoretical level. We then evaluate these results against our experiences gained in a large-scale industrial case study. As a result, we argue that the approaches cannot substitute each other as they differ in many key aspects. Hence, we crystallize guidelines regarding how to combine these such that their strengths are emphasized while weaknesses mitigated.