An NFR-Based Framework for Aligning Software Architectures with System Architectures

System architectures (SysArch), usually developed during the requirements analysis phase of the information system development process, consider different ways of allocating the system requirements between hardware, software and the network. The requirements pertaining to software are then used to design the software subsystem and very often the first step in the design happens to be the development of the software architecture (SoftArch) for the system. In general, high quality software architecture is expected to result in the development of a high quality software system. Therefore, selecting appropriate software architecture seems to be extremely important for the organization. Usually the software requirements drive the selection of the software architecture – however, this approach ignores the effect of SysArch on SoftArch – for example, the choice of database software component in the SoftArch may be influenced by the hardware platform in the SysArch. Therefore ensuring alignment between the SoftArch and SysArch could result in an optimal final system. In this paper we use the Propagatory Framework for establishing the alignment between SoftArch and the SysArch. We demonstrate the practicality of the Propagatory framework by applying it to establish the alignment for a Home Appliance Control System (HACS).