A Systematic Way to Develop the Software Architecture based on Architecture Vision

Abstract: In the software development life cycle, changes are inevitable. Designing the architecture of the software and writing the source code does not end the software life cycle. The software system evolves as changes in the environment and requirements are incorporated in the system. If these changes are not managed properly, the architecture of the software deteriorates and leads to architecture erosion. This study is an effort to address the problem of architecture erosion and to keep the software architecture live and up to date. In this study we propose a method to minimize or avoid architecture erosion. This method provides a systematic way to design the architecture of the software system. It is based on the concept of architecture vision that is the ideal representation of the architecture of the software in hand. This method treats architecture document and architecture design document as two completely different documents. Moreover this study presents an effort to establish a relationship between the implemented architecture of the system, the architecture design document and an architecture vision. The dynamic validation of the devised method shows that this method is suitable for medium to large scale projects that have several releases. All the activities of this method revolve around the efforts to keep the architecture of the software aligned with an architecture vision. The iterative nature of the method and synchronization of the implemented architecture with the architecture vision helps to detect and reduce architecture erosion. This method does not conflict with or replaces any development or management process or method (like RUP, agile, water fall etc), but exists parallel to them.