Towards automated analysis and visualization of distributed software systems

This paper sketches one approach to facilitate comprehension of distributed software systems. These systems gain more and more importance due to a paradigm shift in software systems and applications, evolving from single-chip solutions to multi-tiered web-based applications. For a single developer, it becomes increasingly difficult to cope with the complexity of such software systems. We propose a novel automated analysis and visualization technique that aims at the interactive exploration of static structures and behavior of distributed software systems. First, it automatically gathers communication data from the instrumented system components. Second, it generates a visual representation using a heuristic layout approach. Finally, it allows developers to interactively refine and explore this structural and behavioral information.