Software Architecture Analysis is a process used to evaluate a software system's architecture to determine if it meets specified quality attributes and business requirements. The goal of the analysis is to identify architectural risks, assess trade-offs, and improve the overall design before significant time and resources are invested in development.
Quality Assurance: Ensures the architecture can handle critical quality attributes like performance, scalability, security, maintainability, and reliability.
Risk Mitigation: Identifies and addresses risks early in the development lifecycle, avoiding costly redesigns later.
Informed Decision-Making: Provides insights to help stakeholders make well-informed decisions about the architecture.
Alignment with Requirements: Confirms that the architecture aligns with the functional and non-functional requirements of the system.
The primary goal of software architecture analysis is to gain a thorough understanding of the system that will be built. This involves mapping relationships between the architecture and the system to ensure accuracy. The analysis is dependent on how well these mappings are defined, which can often be unclear.
The purpose of analyzing software architecture is to ensure that it will meet the desired outcomes and requirements using well-defined semantics. This analysis is crucial for making informed decisions and assessing the quality of the system's architecture. Key decision-making aspects in software architecture analysis include:
Software Architecture Design is the process of defining the fundamental structure and organization of a software system. It involves making critical decisions about the components of the system, how they interact, and how they work together to meet the system’s requirements. The architecture serves as a blueprint for both the system and the project, laying out a structured approach to development.