Future self-management software systems will need to operate in diverse environments with changing requirements. This necessitates flexible system implementations, easily customizable to target domains and associated requirements. An important part of a self-management infrastructure is the self-representation, which models system functionality concerns, allowing their inspection and adaptation. As the range of self-management capabilities expands, the task of creating appropriate self-representations becomes ever more complex. Future self-representations will need to track greater amounts of system information than ever before, and in a way that's flexible, customizable, and portable between system implementations. Meeting these requirements will require a maturing in the design and construction practices for self-representations. The Model-View-Controller design pattern can improve concern separation in a self-representation. This pattern helps encapsulate state, analysis, and realization operations, improving a self-representation's flexibility, customization, and portability. © 2008 IEEE.
