* Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: payman.a907@gmail.com (P. Behbahaninejad) © 2012 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved. doi: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.01.010 Management Science Letters 2 (2012) 469–476 Contents lists available at GrowingScience Management Science Letters homepage: www.GrowingScience.com/msl Evaluating software architecture using fuzzy formal models Payman Behbahaninejad a , Ali Harounabadi b* and Sayed Javad Mirabedini b a Department of Computer Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University ,khouzestan-Iran b Department of Computer Engineering, Central Branch, Islamic Azad university, Tehran, Iran A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article history: Received June 2, 2011 Received in Revised form October, 19, 2011 Accepted 8 January 2012 Available online 11 January 2012 Unified Modeling Language (UML) has been recognized as one of the most popular techniques to describe static and dynamic aspects of software systems. One of the primary issues in designing software packages is the existence of uncertainty associated with such models. Fuzzy-UML to describe software architecture has both static and dynamic perspective, simultaneously. The evaluation of software architecture design phase initiates always help us find some additional requirements, which helps reduce cost of design. In this paper, we use a fuzzy data model to describe the static aspects of software architecture and the fuzzy sequence diagram to illustrate the dynamic aspects of software architecture. We also transform these diagrams into Petri Nets and evaluate reliability of the architecture. The web-based hotel reservation system for further explanation has been studied. © 2012 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Fuzzy-UML Software architecture Evaluation Architecture model 1. Introduction Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a semi-formal modeling and standard language, for easy describing software architecture (Object Management Group, 2002). This language has developed a powerful set of predefined modeling elements, diagrams and structure to describe the structural and behavioral properties of software architecture and the introduction of appropriate tools to support it. Unfortunately, this language is only capable of modeling some specific information systems, where there is no uncertainty in the model. However, when we consider uncertainty in UML, the extended version named Fuzzy-UML will be produced (Haroonabadi & Teshnehlab, 2008; Ma et al., 2011). Fuzzy-UML includes both o structure and behavior sights, which would be explained later in this paper. The next section is proposed method, and its subsections included fuzzy data model, fuzzy sequence diagram, evaluating software architecture using fuzzy Petri Nets, reliability using fuzzy Petri Net, case study, and the last section is conclusion and future works.