Evidence in architecture degradation and consistency checking research: preliminary results from a literature review

Theory suggests that software development may bene t from applying architecture consistency checking and hence, aca- demics have focused on this area. In such circumstances it is important to characterize the overall focus of the eld, in order to assess the actual impact of the research work carried out to date, identifying where researchers are placing their e ort and which sub-topics are being neglected. In doing so a map is provided for researchers allowing them focus on relevant research gaps and avoiding saturated sub-topics, to deliver results relevant for academia and industrial practice. The goal of this paper is to shed some light on the current state of research in software architecture degradation and consistency checking, particularly focusing on empirical evi- dence. Preliminary, yet signi cant results from an ongoing mapping study, as a precursor to a more detailed literature review, are presented and discussed. These results show that solution-proposals constitute a large part of the body of work. In addition, they show that case studies, with potentially limited external validity, are prevalent in terms of empirical design. We argue that the proportion of empirical studies needs to be expanded and that existing case studies should be complemented by experiments and surveys, assessing its impact in practice

Towards flexible automated software architecture erosion diagnosis and treatment

Uncontrolled software architecture erosion can lead to a de- gradation of the quality of a software system. It is hence of great importance to repair erosion e ciently. Refactor- ings can help to systematically reverse software architecture erosion through applying them in the system where archi- tectural violations have been detected. However, existing refactoring approaches do not address architecture erosion holistically. In this paper, we describe and formalize the theoreti- cal problem of repairing eroded software systems by nd- ing optimal repair sequences. Furthermore, we investigate the applicability and limitations of existing refactoring ap- proaches. We argue, true to the motto \more knowledge means less search" that using formalized and explicit knowl- edge of software engineers|modeled as fault patterns and repair strategies|combined with heuristic search techniques could overcome those limitations. This paper outlines a new approach|analog to a patient history in medicine|we have been starting to investigate in our recent research and also aims at stimulating a discus- sion about further research challenges in repairing eroded software systems

FLINTS: A tool for architectural-level modeling of features in software systems

Reflexion Modeling has been proposed as a means of creating and refining a functional model of software systems at the architectural level. Such a model allows developers to maintain a consistent understanding of the relationships between different functionalities of their system as it evolves, and allows them to analyze the system at a functional-chunk level rather than at the traditional, structural levels more typically presented by IDEs. This paper describes a prototype tool built to enable this approach. The tool assists developers in moving to this functional perspective by supporting them as they first attempt to locate specific functionalities in the code. This support is based on design principles identified by observing experienced software developers in-vivo, as they performed this task manually. After the code associated with several such functionalities is located in the code-base, a graphical view allows the developer to assess the source code dependencies between these features and between these features and the rest of the system. This helps the developer understand the inter-functional interfaces, and the representation can be reviewed over time, as features are added and removed, to ensure on-going consistency between the architect’s perspective of the features in the system and the code-base

Development of a Streamlined Manufacturing Process for the Highly Substituted Quinazoline Core Present in KRAS G12C Inhibitor <i>Divarasib</i>

A streamlined process for the synthesis of a highly functionalized quinazoline that enabled late-stage preparation of KRAS G12C inhibitor divarasib is presented herein. The highlights of the synthesis are a telescoped four-step preparation of the key 2-amino-4-bromo-3-fluorobenzonitrile intermediate, a critical aromatic chlorination using NCS and catalytic HCl, a cyclization to a quinazoline dione employing CO2 and DBU, and a DABCO−MsOH-catalyzed Halex reaction to form target quinazoline fluoride 2. In the chlorination step, we encountered an unusual halogen scrambling, resulting in critical 4,5-dichloro and 4,5-dibromo impurities that needed to be controlled down to low levels due to minimal purging power in downstream chemistry. The manufacturing process was demonstrated by the preparation of >500 kg of quinazoline 2 in 39% overall yield and 99.5 area % HPLC purity over nine chemical steps and five isolations