Preserving architectural pattern composition information through explicit merging operators

Composable software systems have been proved to support the adaptation to new requirements thanks to their flexibility. A typical method of composable software development is to select and combine a number of patterns that address the expected quality requirements. Therefore, pattern composition has become a crucial aspect during software design. One of the shortcomings of existing work about pattern composition is the vaporization of composition information which leads to the problem of traceability and reconstructability of patterns. In this paper we propose to give first-class status to pattern merging operators to facilitate the preservation of composition information. The approach is tool-supported and an empirical study has also been conducted to highlight its effectiveness. By applying the approach on the composition of a set of formalized architectural patterns, including their variants, we have shown that composed patterns have become traceable and reconstructable.