Analysis of Crosscutting in Early Software Development Phases Based on Traceability - Transactions on Aspect-Oriented Software Development - page 84

Cascading Operation

Dependency
Matrix 1

Apply Process shown in
Figure 4

Framework Process

Dependency
Matrix Resulting

Scattering Matrix

Derive

X

X

1

Derive Product

Product

Crosscutting
Product Matrix

Crosscutting
Matrix

Tangling Matrix

2

2 3 4

Dependency
Matrix 2

3

Fig. 5. Overview of cascading operation

We can trace concerns throughout the development process by applying the
crosscutting analysis at each level. Once the crosscutting concerns have been
identified at a particular level, we can compare the results with the results obtained in
previous or subsequent levels.

5 Case Studies

In this section we show the application of our approach to some case studies. Firstly
we apply the framework to a Remote Calculator, a simple software program which
follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern. This is a case with scattering and
tangling but no crosscutting. Secondly in Sect. 5.2, we show the application to a
Portuguese Highways Toll System, a well known example shown in other
publications [2, 28]. We obtain the same results as the ones described in the
aforementioned publications. We only consider concerns which are related to non-
functional properties of the system. In Sect. 5.3, we show how our approach may
complement other approaches such us Theme/Doc [4] for the identification of
crosscutting themes. In Section 0, we apply the framework to a Conference Review
System (CRS), a case study which has been used in some workshops [17] where
concerns are related to functional and non-functional properties. We show how
to analyze crosscutting across several phases in the software life cycle. In the last
Sect. 5.5, we extend the CRS system with aspects and analyze the impact of the
selected decomposition.

5.1 Remote Calculator

In this section, we show the application of the framework to a simple example, a
calculator with remote access. We apply the framework at concern level with respect
to the design level (represented in a UML class diagram). Thus, this case study shows
how the framework can be applied to other abstraction levels such as the
implementation phase. The application of the framework in this example will show
how crosscutting can be distinguished from scattering and tangling.