A Semi-Automation of a Cost Benefit Analysis Method

This paper presents CBAM Assistant, a tool that semi-automates the Cost Benefit Analysis Method (CBAM) developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University. CBAM is a process used to estimate the Return on Investment (ROI) of various software architectural design strategies. CBAM generally follows the Architectural Trade-off Analysis Method (ATAM) also developed by SEI. ATAM aids in defining scenarios and architectural strategies. The result is a qualitative trade-off analysis of the various strategies. CBAM further refines the scenarios and architectural strategies from ATAM. CBAM aids in quantitative analysis for cost, utility and importance ratings to determine the ROI of each architectural strategy. CBAM Assistant is a web-based system that walks a user through the CBAM process which can be started by using scenarios and architectural strategies created from ATAM. The tool is intended to be used by a facilitator who will provide input from stakeholders. The primary output of the tool is the ROIs of each architectural strategy for comparison and selection.

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