Separation of Concerns : A Case Study

In this paper we present the results of a case study we conducted at two local SMEs (Small and Medium sized Enterprises) in two different domains. In the case study we examine how these companies handle separation of concerns in their respective domains. We focused on which concerns were perceived as problematic; what kind of design solutions were used to work around these problems and what the effect of these design solutions was on the separation of concerns. In our analysis we reflect on if, and how the use of advanced separation of concerns technology, such as e.g. Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP), would be useful. An important conclusion of our paper is that in both cases the companies do not need such tools for separating the concerns they are aware of (i.e. anticipated concerns) since adequate, conventional techniques have been applied. The benefit of applying such techniques to separate the remaining, unanticipated concerns is unclear as well since it is anticipated that at least some refactoring of the original system would be required in order to apply such techniques.