Specifying and Testing Conformance to Reference Architectures

A new technique for testing applications for conformance with reference architectures is presented. We demonstrate this technique using a reference architecture derived from the X/Open standard for distributed transaction processing documents. These documents informally describe the interfaces, communication protocols, and properties of its software components. However, the reference architecture presented in this paper is an improvement over the documents, because it is both a formal deenition of the standard and a Rapide prototype that may be executed and tested. Another executable Rapide prototype, which models a health care information processing system, is then related to the reference architecture by pattern mappings. Pattern mappings formally specify the architectural relationships between an application and a reference architecture, and they permit an application's executions to be automatically tested for conformance with the protocols and global design constraints of the reference architecture.