Sullivan, K.J., Mediators: Easing the Design and Evolution of Integrated Systems, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Washington Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Technical Report UW-CSE-94-08-01, August, 1994 (postscript).

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The mediator approach to software design eases the design and evolution of integrated software systems. By integrated systems, we means systems in which tools or components work together dynamically to maintain system-wide invariants. This method works by decomposing systems into stand-alone behavioral components integrated by separate, semantically rich, behavioral relationship components called mediators. Systems designed in this way appear to be simpler and to be easier to maintain in the face of such changes as the integration of new components, changes in the ways in which components work together, and removal of old components. The approach suggests new ways of analyzing integrated systems. It leads to not hierarchical structures but to systems organized as networks of interacting elements. The elements themselves are instances of what we call abstract behavioral types (ABTs), which are characterized by both operations and events. The networks of ABTs, some representing stand-alone components and others representing mediators, we call behavioral entity-relationship models.

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Last modified: Sat Jun 7 10:31:57 1997