Figure 3

Overview of our architecture design approach. In the design space inception stage (a), domain experts use the DuSE’s constructs for specifying a domain-specific design space (degrees of freedom, their corresponding alternative solutions, and the architecture extensions required to implement each solution). Henceforth – in the design space usage stage (b) – architects submit initial models to the optimization engine, which searches for those (near-)optimal extensions revealing design trade-offs. A particular design space instance – SA:DuSE – enables the use of such an infrastructure in the self-adaptive systems domain.