Combining static and dynamic views for architecture reconstruction

Static analysis aims at recovering the structure of a software system, while dynamic analysis focuses on its run time behaviour. We propose a technique for combining the analysis of static and dynamic architectural information to support the task of architecture reconstruction. The approach emphasises the correct choice of architecturally significant concepts for the reconstruction process and relies on abstraction techniques for their manipulation. The technique allows the software architect to create a set of architectural views valuable for the architecture description of the system. To support our technique, we outline an environment that relies on hierarchical typed directed graphs to show the system's structure and message sequence charts for its behaviour. The main features of the environment are: visualisation of static and dynamic views, synchronisation of abstractions performed on the views, scripting support and management of the use cases. The approach and the environment are demonstrated with an example.