Software Architecture Evaluation

Luminary Software provides a comprehensive software architecture evaluation service: Software Architecture Testing (SAT). Our approach is to use an inspection technique, developed by Luminary software, as an extension of techniques developed at the Software Engineering Institute.

In SAT we extend the Architecture Trade-off Analysis Method™ by applying a testing perspective to the inspection of the architecture. This allows us to adjust the inspection to reflect the priorities of the client.

In particular, during the evaluation, we identify:

• Sensitivity points, where even a small change in the architecture could require major changes to other parts of the architecture,
• Trade-off points, where a change in the architecture that results in an increase in value to one attribute results in a decline in value for another,
• Variability points, where additions to the software are anticipated, and
• Quality attribute priorities, where project personnel, based on level of importance, ranked the quality attributes.

In addition to the items listed above, the evaluation results in:

• The identification of project risks that are related to the architecture
• Recommendations for architectural changes that will more closely align the architecture with the
  desired system qualities
• Recommendations that suggest architecture-related process changes intended to improve the
  application's architecture and reduce the identified risks

Options beyond the basic evaluation include:

• Quantitative models - We work with project personnel to create quantitative descriptions of essential
  portions of the architecture.
• Architect mentoring - We work with the architecture team to provide them with the techniques that
  they need to improve the existing architecture and to maintain the modified architecture.

For more information contact us at info@lumsoft.com.

™ ATAM is a service mark of the Software Engineering Institute.