A Case Against Continuous Simulation for Software Architecture Evaluation

A software architecture is one of the first steps towards a software system. The design of the architecture is important in order to create a good foundation for the system. The design process is performed by evaluating architecture alternatives against each other. A desirable property of a good evaluation method is high efficiency at low cost. In this paper, we investigate the use of continuous simulation as a tool for software architecture performance evaluation. We create a model of the software architecture of an existing software system using a tool for continuous simulation, and then simulate the model. Based on the case study, we conclude that continuous simulation is not feasible for software architecture performance evaluation, e.g., we identified the need of discrete functionality to correctly simulate the system, and that it is very time consuming to develop a model for performance evaluation purposes. However, the modeling process is valuable for increasing knowledge and understanding about an architecture.