Architecture-Centric Software Engineering

Abstract

Many software organizations are in the transition from project-centric to architecture-centric engineering of software [2]. Two typical reasons for this transition are (1) the architecture allows for a clear break-down in parts whereas a project-centric approach easily leads to a monolithic system and (2) the organization is interested in exploiting the commonalities between its products or systems. This tutorial addresses this development by providing an overview and in depth treatment of the issues around architecture-centric engineering of software. Topics include software architecture design in the presence of existing components and infrastructure (top-down versus bottom-up), architecture evaluation and assessment, software artefact variability management, software product lines and the role of the software architect. These topics are, in addition to the technical perspective, discussed from process and organizational [3] viewpoints. The topics are extensively illustrated by examples and experiences from many industrial cases (e.g. [1]).