Towards Evaluation Mechanisms for Runtime Adaptivity: From Case Studies to Metrics

In this paper we propose a set of metrics for the description and evaluation of the adaptive properties of information systems. They aim to provide a concrete mechanism to analyze the quality of the design of adaptive systems, to determine the type of adaptivity of a system or to compare the adaptive features of different systems. The metrics are grouped into categories: architectural, structural, interaction, and performance. They have been identified and specified by analyzing several case studies, which address runtime adaptivity issues through different approaches with different objectives in various application contexts.