Session: Big Code 2 Chair(s): Manu SridharanUniversity of California RiversideSoftware architecture plays an important role in facilitating the maintenance of a software system. Over the past two decades, software architecture research has yielded many different tools and techniques for understanding and maintaining the architectures of large, complex software systems. However, empirical research and technology transfer are impeded by myriad disjoint research and development environments, lack of a shared infrastructure, high initial costs associated with developing robust tools, and a lack of datasets needed to conduct empirical research in this domain. To address these challenges, a team of software-engineering and software-architecture researchers, in collaboration with nearly 50 researchers worldwide, are producing the Software Architecture INfrastructure (SAIN), a community-wide research infrastructure to support empirical research at the intersection of software maintenance and software architecture. SAIN will address challenges involving (1) time wasted by researchers who need to “reinvent the wheel” due to tools that are inaccessible or not reusable; (2) a lack of benchmarks or datasets that can be used to conduct architecture-oriented empirical research; and (3) issues with reproducibility or replicability.
