A framework for classifying and comparing software architecture evaluation methods

TLDR

Software architecture evaluation aims to achieve quality attributes such as maintainability and reliability, yet despite many proposed methods, consensus on the technical and nontechnical issues they should address remains lacking. The study aims to assess whether an architecture achieves desired quality attributes and to provide a framework of features that guides the selection of the most suitable evaluation method. The authors develop a framework of evaluation method features and apply it to characterize eight software architecture evaluation methods. Using the framework, the authors characterized eight software architecture evaluation methods.

Abstract

Software architecture evaluation has been proposed as a means to achieve quality attributes such as maintainability and reliability in a system. The objective of the evaluation is to assess whether or not the architecture lead to the desired quality attributes. Recently, there have been a number of evaluation methods proposed. There is, however, little consensus on the technical and nontechnical issues that a method should comprehensively address and which of the existing methods is most suitable for a particular issue. We present a set of commonly known but informally described features of an evaluation method and organizes them within a framework that should offer guidance on the choice of the most appropriate method for an evaluation exercise. We use this framework to characterise eight SA evaluation methods.