Abstract: The construction of dependable software systems is recognized as a complex task: the system developer has to address the usage of fault tolerance techniques in addition to the design of the functional aspects that are specific to the system. This paper proposes a framework aimed at easing the development of dependable systems by providing software designers with a repository of dependable software architectures. A dependable software architecture shows how to integrate a fault tolerance technique with a given system so as to make the system dependable. Furthermore, the dependability behaviors of architectures are formally specified, which allows to unambiguously interpret the various fault tolerance techniques as well as to organize the repository of corresponding architectures into a refinement-based lattice structure.

Keywords: Dependability, Formal specification, Software Architecture, Software Reuse, Specification Refinement.