*_Notice and Invitation_*
Oral Defense of Doctoral Dissertation
The Volgenau School of Engineering, George Mason University

Julie S. Fant
Bachelor of Science, James Madison University, 2001
Master of Science, George Mason University, 2005

An Approach to Building Domain Specific Software Architectures Using 
Software Architectural Design Patterns

Thursday, July 21, 2011, 10:30am -- 12:30pm *(Changed from 10:00am to 
10:30am)*
Engineering Bldg., Room 2302
All are invited to attend.

*_Committee_*
Hassan Gomaa, Chair
Andrew Sage
Sam Malek
Alexander Brodsky
Robert G. Pettit IV


*_Abstract_*

Software architectural design patterns represent best practice solutions 
to common design challenges.However, applying design patterns in 
practice can be difficult because they are typically documented to be 
domain independent.This makes applying them in a particular domain 
difficult.Knowing where and at what level of abstraction software 
architectural design patterns should be applied in a given domain is not 
always clear.Currently, there are no existing approaches for building 
and validating domain specific software architectures that focus on 
reusing and composing existing software architectural design 
patterns.This dissertation addresses this gap by developing a software 
product line (SPL) based approach to building and validating domain 
specific software architectures from software architectural design patterns.

  The key contributions of this research include: the definition of 
distributed real-time and embedded (DRE) executable design patterns; the 
definition of a SPL design approach that captures SPL variability at a 
higher degree of granularity using design patterns; the definition of 
different levels of required executable design pattern customizations; 
and a feature and design pattern based functional validation 
approach.Additionally, a domain specific SPL and two real world case 
studies are provided to validate and demonstrate the applicability of 
this approach.


A copy of this doctoral dissertation is on reserve at the Johnson Center 
Library.