Obvious or Not? Regulating Architectural Decisions Using Aspect-Oriented Programming

The construction of complex, evolving software systems requires a high-level design model. However, this model tends not to be enforced on the system, leaving room for the implementors to diverge from it, thus differentiating the designed system from the actual implemented one. The essence of the problem of enforcing such models lies in their globality. The principles and guidelines conveyed by these models cannot be localized in a single module, they must be observed everywhere in the system. A mechanism for enforcement needs to have a global view of the system and to report breaches in the model at the time they occur. Aspect-Oriented Programming has been proposed as a new software engineering approach. Unlike contemporary software engineering methods, which are module centered, Aspect Oriented Programming provides mechanisms for the definition of cross-module interactions. We explore the possibility of using Aspect-Oriented Programming in general and the AspectJ programming language in particular for the enforcement of design models.