Pattern-Based Architectural Design Driven by Quality Properties: A Platform to Model Scientific Calculation

There is a general agreement on the fact that architectural design is crucial to build software that meets initial needs. Nonfunctional properties play an important role, however methods are not still mature. We have defined a pattern-based architectural design method driven by quality properties. Our goal is to apply it to design a platform to model scientific calculation. We do not intend to re-write a new Simulation Code (Quantum Chemistry, Molecular Dynamics etc ...) nor to integrate various existing Codes inside an external envelope, with some scripting language, which is the usual practice in most of these calculation environments. Our intention is rather to spend the necessary time to design rationally the architecture and the objects of a modeling framework. In this platform the architecture is crucial to handle a unique calculation structure, shared by all the components of the platform.