Quality of software architectures

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Models are essential in various engineering disciplines, serving to abstract details of the modeled entity and focus on specific aspects. In software engineering, software architecture acts as a blueprint, providing an abstraction of a system’s complexity. This enables designers to gain an overview of the system under development and analyze its properties. Models are foundational for software development to evolve into a true engineering discipline. When evaluating a software system’s extra-functional properties, the architecture contains vital information for early design-time analyses. These analyses utilize the architecture to guide the design process, allowing for a systematic evaluation of alternatives. They help eliminate decisions that could lead to architectures failing to meet extra-functional requirements such as performance or reliability. Additionally, internal quality attributes like maintainability are also influenced by the system’s architecture. Beyond technical aspects, non-technical elements, particularly project management activities, necessitate an explicit software architecture model. These models inform cost estimations, time, deadline, and resource planning for development teams, supporting project management in planning, executing, and controlling efforts to deliver high-quality software systems on time and within budget.