Software Evolution through Dynamic Adaptation of Its OO Design

Abstract. In this paper we present a proposal for safely evolving a software system against run-time changes. This proposal is based on a reflective architecture which provides objects with the ability of dynamically changing their behavior by using their design information. The meta-level system of the proposed architecture supervises the evolution of the software system to be adapted that runs as the base-level system of the reflective architecture. The meta-level system is composed of cooperating components; these components carry out the evolution against sudden and unexpected environmental changes on a reification of the design information (e.g., object models, scenarios and statecharts) of the system to be adapted. The evolution takes place in two steps: first a meta-object, called evolutionary meta-object, plans a possible evolution against the detected event then another meta-object, called consistency checker meta-object validates the feasibility of the proposed plan before really evolving the system. Meta-objects use the system design information to govern the evolution of the base-level system. Moreover, we show our architecture at work on a case study