Reusable integrated components of inter-related patterns for software development

Patterns are a means for capturing experience in solving general problems. They give general solutions to common and recurring problems. They exist at various phases of the software development life-cycle (SDLC), namely the analysis phase, the design phase, the coding phase and the testing phase. Patterns in each phase are identified independently. It is possible for the patterns of one phase to be related to patterns in other phases. This paper proposes pattern mapping to inter-relate the patterns of various phases in SDLC to address this issue. It is advantageous to capture the related patterns of different phases as a single unit for software development. Reusable integrated components (ICs) of patterns are proposed to capture the related patterns. A software IC is a group of inter-related patterns, that gives solutions for a recurring problem at various phases of SDLC. A representation mechanism for ICs is presented using the URA (Unified Representation of an Artifact) model, which captures the software development process. Also, this paper proposes a software development process that is based on reusable ICs of patterns. The representation of a software project developed using ICs is also discussed.