In cloud computing, software architects develop systems for virtually unlimited resources that cloud providers account on a pay-per-use basis. Elasticity management systems provision these resource autonomously to deal with changing workloads. Such changing workloads call for new objective metrics allowing architects to quantify quality properties like scalability, elasticity, and efficiency, e...

Forschungsplattform Alexandria https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch | 29.01.2016 The research scope in concept mapping research can be extended with the investigation of complementary concept mapping approaches which are visual representations that complement the classical node link diagrams from Novak. To do so, concept mapping researchers can draw inspiration from architects. This article presents...

The paper presents an approach to capture and exchange the arguments and rationale architects develop while designing. The approach was inspired by experiments conducted in the context of a larger research project on architectural redesign. Protocol analysis revealed that architects tend to use three mechanisms in constructing arguments for design solutions: chunks, lines of thought, and strate...

During the process of software design, software architects have their reasons to choose certain software components to address particular software requirements and constraints. However, existing software architecture review techniques often rely on the design reviewers’ knowledge and experience, and perhaps using some checklists, to identify design gaps and issues, without questioning the reaso...

Design decisions software architects make directly impact system quality. Real-world systems involve a large number of such decisions, and each decision is typically influenced by others and involves trade-offs in system properties. This paper poses the problem of making complex, interacting design decision relatively early in the project’s lifecycle and outlines a search-based and simulationba...

In this paper we present SAABNet (Software Architecture Assessment Belief network), an approach to automating the process of performing software architecture assessment. We have found that SAABNet is especially useful early in the development process when measurable assets are scarce. In this stage of development software architects have little more than their own experience to rely on. SAABNet...

The design and development of sustainable software systems require software architects to consider a variety of architectural solutions and their trade-offs. With the frequent introduction of new architectural methods and software solutions, as well as, due to time-to-market constraints faced by software architects, considering even a subset of alternative architectural solutions during the dec...

Asking the Right Questions “Probing for Requirements Knowledge to Stimulate Architectural Thinking,” by Preethu Anish and her colleagues, describes an inexpensive, down-to-earth requirements elicitation technique to ensure that software requirement speci cations (SRSs) contain architecturally relevant information.1 This research aims to equip business analysts with the appropriate probing quest...

This research defines a method for a new engineering discipline: corporate architecture engineering. This method supports corporate architecture teams with the development, maintenance and use of a corporate architecture. The purpose of corporate architecture is to regain control over the complexity that occurs on the corporate level of organizations in which a diverse collection of infrastruct...