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Abstract We present methodological and technological solutions for evolving large‐scale software systems. These solutions are based on many years of research and experience in developing systems in one of the most volatile application domains—banking. We discuss why ‘promising’ software development techniques, such as object‐oriented and component‐based approaches, on their own, cannot meet the challenges and objectives of software development today, and propose a three‐layered architectural approach based on the strict separation between computation, coordination and configuration. We present a set of modelling primitives, design principles and support tools through which such an approach can be put effectively into practice, and discuss how it promotes a more ‘dynamic’ approach to software evolution. Finally, we make comparisons with related work. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Recent advances in telecommunication technology, including wireless networks and the Internet, along with the competition of network operators for offering advanced and different services, are putting increasing pressure for building telecommunication software systems that are adaptive to new requirements and easily reconfigurable, even in run time. We propose a new modelling primitive - coordination contract - that we have developed and applied to other applications domains, as a means to provide an effective solution to this problem. We briefly describe coordination contracts and discuss how they can support the evolution of the specifications of the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Datagram layer.