Specification and verification of design pattern structure, behaviour and variation

Abstract

Design patterns are generic solutions to connnonly-occnrring object-oriented software design problems that display good design properties such as extensibility or loose coupling. During software maintenance, earlier design decisions, such as the application of design patterns, can be violated, gradually reducing software quality in a phenomenon known as 'architectural drift'. Specifications serve to formalize design decisions and can be compared directly to implementations, as well as being useful in communication. Precise specification of patterns and automated verification of the conformance of implementations to the specifications can help to avoid architectural drift, preserving software quality. Spefication languages and verifcation of design patterns can also be used for legacy code understanding and the generation of quality metrics.