Operational management contracts for adaptive software organisation

As modern computing environments become more open, distributed and pervasive, the software we build for those dynamic environments need to become more adaptable and adaptive. We have previously introduced the ROAD framework for creating flexible and adaptive software structures. This framework is built on a distinction between functional and management roles. Management roles participate in contracts that regulate the global-flow of control through a structure of objects and roles. This paper shows how these operational-management contracts can be defined. Such contracts specify the permissible interactions between objects playing functional roles within an organisational structure. Association aspects are shown to have the expressiveness needed to represent such management contracts.