Building simulation models to evaluate web application architectures

摘要

Software quality has become a critical issue in software engineering because affects systems development costs, delivery schedules, and user satisfaction. In specific software products, an early quality evaluation can be done by using simulation techniques over the architectural design. However, not all architectural designs can be transformed into simulation models. This paper presents a set of simulation models based on standard architectural components that helps to compose web architectures simulation models in order to analyze its behavior. It also includes the definition and modeling of different types of mechanisms that help to simulate consumer's behavior. These mechanisms allow generating the inputs required to the quality evaluation (that is, software requirements) and could be used in other situations. All simulation models proposed were formalized using Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS). In this context, this work gives the foundations needed to make a future evaluation of specific quality attributes for web applications.