1 research outputs found
Minimizing the Risk of Architectural Decay by using Architecture-Centric Evolution Process
Software systems endure many noteworthy changes throughout their life-cycle
in order to follow the evolution of the problem domains. Generally, the
software system architecture cannot follow the rapid evolution of a problem
domain which results in the discrepancies between the implemented and designed
architecture. Software architecture illustrates a system's structure and global
properties and consequently determines not only how the system should be
constructed but also leads its evolution. Architecture plays an important role
to ensure that a system satisfies its business and mission goals during
implementation and evolution. However, the capabilities of the designed
architecture may possibly be lost when the implementation does not conform to
the designed architecture. Such a loss of consistency causes the risk of
architectural decay. The architectural decay can be avoided if architectural
changes are made as early as possible. The paper presents the Process Model for
Architecture-Centric Evolution which improves the quality of software systems
through maintaining consistency between designed architecture and
implementation. It also increases architecture awareness of developers which
assists in minimizing the risk of architectural decay. In the proposed approach
consistency checks are performed before and after the change implementation.Comment: 12 Pages 8 Figures Journal Paper; International Journal of Computer
Science, Engineering and Applications (IJCSEA) Vol.1, No.5, October 201