A Methodological Approach To Verify Architecture Resiliency

Abstract

Architecture-first approach to address software resiliency is becoming the mainstream development method for mission-critical and software-intensive systems. In such approach, resiliency is built into the system from the ground up, starting with a robust software architecture design. As a result, a flaw in the design of a resilient architecture affects the system's ability to anticipate, withstand, recover from, and adapt to adverse conditions, stresses, attacks, or compromises on cyber-resources. In this paper, we present an architecture-centric reasoning and verification methodology for detecting design weaknesses in resilient systems. Our goal is to assist software architects in building sound architectural models of their systems. We showcase our approach with the aid of an Autonomous Robot modeled in AADL, in which we use our methodology to uncover three architectural weaknesses in the adoption of three architectural tactics.