New evaluation method for reference architectures utilized to design a software reference architecture for liquid handling devices

Abstract

Software development is important to ensure the system’s requirements and qualities. If the architecture is implemented poorly, then the system might not be fulfill the users’ expectations. A reference architecture can facilitate the process of achieving a concrete architecture because it provides architectural approaches, designs, and components as starting point that can be followed. A reference architecture can be helpful in the laboratory device domain especially for liquid handling devices because of the common requirements and qualities that the devices share. To reach a reference architecture, it needs to be evaluated. Unfortunately, there is not an evaluation method that is oriented towards evaluating reference architectures. As a result, this thesis presents an adapted evaluation method from Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM) to evaluate reference architectures. The adapted evaluation method was tested by applying it to the liquid handling device domain to obtain a reference architecture. The obtained reference architecture is also presented in this thesis and is tested by using it as a facilitator to implement a small prototype of a liquid handling device.