Towards an Architecture Maintainability Maturity Model (AM3)

The maintainability of software systems is a crucial point in the software lifecycle. However, assessing the quality of the software’s architecture with respect to evolution is a challenging task. The evaluation of the maintainability of a system’s architecture is often made using scenario-based techniques. These techniques require a comprehensive anticipation of future adaptations of the systems. To circumvent this problem, a scenario-independent method is desirable to assess maintainability. Additionally, the comprehensibility of the architecture for third persons which were not involved in the initial design is an important aspect in the long-term. We therefore developed the Architecture Documentation Maturity Model (AM3) to assess the quality of the architecture’s documentation as this first of all influences comprehensibility. This model is a first step towards a more general approach to assess the maintainability of architectures, called Architecture Maintainability Maturity Model.