Software Architecture Process

Good Architectural Process

• The process should gather both functional requirements and a prioritized list of quality attributes.
• It should be well-documented, with at least one static view and one dynamic view.
• The architecture should be reviewed by the system's stakeholders.
• The architecture should be analyzed for applicable quantitative measures (e.g., maximum throughput) and formally evaluated for quality measures.
• A "skeletal" system should be developed to facilitate incremental implementation.
• Resource contention areas should be minimized and clearly identified.

Good Architectural Structure

• The architecture should feature well-defined modules based on the principles of information hiding and separation of concerns.
• Each module should have a well-defined interface that hides changeable aspects.
• Quality attributes should be achieved using well-known architectural tactics.
• The architecture should be independent of particular versions of commercial products or tools.
• Modules that produce data should be separate from modules that consume data.
• For parallel-processing systems, the architecture should feature well-defined processes or tasks that do not necessarily mirror the module decomposition structure.
• Every task or process should be specified so that its assignment to a particular processor can be easily changed.

Software Architecture Activities

• Analyzing or evaluating the architecture involves evaluating it for the qualities it supports to ensure stakeholder satisfaction.
• Scenario-based techniques are used for evaluation, including Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Model (ATAM) and Cost Benefit Analysis Model (CBAM).
• Implementing based on the architecture involves ensuring conformance to an architecture and keeping developers faithful to the structures.
• Constant vigilance is required to ensure that the actual architecture and its implementations remain faithful to each other.

Architecture Business Cycle (ABC)

• Architectures are influenced by system stakeholders, the developing organization, the background and experience of the architects, and the technical environment.
• System stakeholders, including end users, maintenance, customer, and management, have different expectations from the system.
• Acceptable system involves properties such as performance, reliability, availability, memory utilization, security, modifiability, usability, and interoperability with other systems.