Foundations for the study of software architecture
Open accessAbstract
The purpose of this paper is to build the foundation for software architecture. We first develop an intuition for software architecture by appealing to several well-established architectural disciplines. On the basis of this intuition, we present a model of software architecture that consists of three components: elements, form, and rationale. Elements are either processing, data, or connecting elements. Form is defined in terms of the properties of, and the relationships among, the elements --- that is, the constraints on the elements. The rationale provides the underlying basis for the architecture in terms of the system constraints, which most often derive from the system requirements. We discuss the components of the model in the context of both architectures and architectural styles and present an extended example to illustrate some important architecture and style considerations. We conclude by presenting some of the benefits of our approach to software architecture, summarizing our contributions, and relating our approach to other current work.
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Divergence of implemented architecture from intended architecture could lead to software architecture erosion.
“The diverges of implemented architecture from the corresponding intended architecture could lead to software architecture erosion [78].”
From Software Architecture in Practice: Challenges and Opportunities (2023) · cites this paper as [78]
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- Authors
- Perry, D. E., & Wolf, A. L.
- Affiliations
- AT&T (United States) (US)
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- ORCID
- Wolf, Alexander L.
- Venue
- ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes
- Published
- 1992-10
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 40-52
- ISSN
- 0163-5948 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2118023438
- Cited by
- 2,023
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 24 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 34 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 35 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 61 · 2017: 40 · 2016: 52 · 2015: 72 · 2014: 64 · 2013: 95 · 2012: 74
- FWCI
- 20.96
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Advanced Software Engineering Methodologies
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Software › Model-Driven Software Engineering Techniques
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Techniques and Practices
- Keywords
- software architecture, architectural models, architectural style, system constraints, system requirements, processing elements, data elements, connection elements, architectural form
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