Towards a Taxonomy for the Evaluation of Self-* Software

Self-* properties characterize dynamic software able to perform changes on itself by itself during its execution. The objectives of these changes are to maintain the functionality for which the software has been implemented and its related quality, and/or to improve the performances of the software whenever this is possible. Changes aim to address a wide range of issues, e.g., from resource variability (e.g., due to mobility) and changing users' needs to security threats and faults. One of the main advantages of self-* software is that the complexity of changes is managed dynamically by the software and hidden from the users. Today, more and more software solutions are characterized by self-* properties. The objective of this paper is to investigate which are the evaluation approaches of self-* software and how self-* properties may be evaluated. Further, a taxonomy for the evaluation of self-* software is proposed.