Abstract
Avoiding architectural erosion helps extend the lifetime of an evolving software system Erosion can be reduced by ensuring that (i) developers share a good understanding of a system's architecture; (ii) alignment is preserved between the architectural description and its implementation at all stages of system construction and maintenance; and (iii) architectural changes are treated with the same care and attention as the production of the initial design. Through the metaphor of 'agile development' this paper presents a lightweight approach to the control of architectural erosion. In particular, it covers the representation of an architectural description and the management of alignment between description and implementation during system evolution. A prototype support tool, ArchAngel, is introduced. This maintains an architectural design description, identifies when changes occur with respect to that description, and reports these changes for evaluation.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Unknown Host Publication |
Publisher | IEEE Computer Society |
Pages | 59-64 |
Number of pages | 6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published (in print/issue) - 1 Sept 2003 |
Event | International Workshop on Principles of Software Evolution (IWPSE 2003) - Helsinki, Finland Duration: 1 Sept 2003 → … |
Workshop
Workshop | International Workshop on Principles of Software Evolution (IWPSE 2003) |
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Period | 1/09/03 → … |