Application of complexity and brittleness on software architecture

Abstract

Just like the catastrophe in power grid, software system may collapse during its operation. It reflects the complexity in software system itself, and the brittleness of software system is the main reason which results in the collapse. The notion of complex system and brittleness is introduced into the study of software system and some aspects which can induce the system to collapse are also discussed. Specifically, the notions of complex system, complex network and brittleness are introduced at first, then a detailed description of the complexity of software system is given; following that a fast-slow alternative dynamic model is built, which consists of a slow-dynamic model and a fast-dynamic model. In the end, a complex theory framework of brittleness on software architecture is presented, which covers the brittleness of software architecture from the way of language description, the analytical method, modeling to the evaluation. This can give a comprehensive research platform on the brittleness of software system. Some main research areas are also given for future study.