Software quality is the degree to which software possesses a desired combination of attributes (e.g., reliability, interoperability). In this paper we describe a few principles for analyzing a software architecture to determine if it exhibits certain quality attributes. We show how analysis techniques indigenous to the various quality attribute communities can provide a foundation for performing software architecture evaluation. We also show how the principles provide a context for existing evaluation approaches such as scenarios, questionnaires, checklists, and measurements. Our immediate goal in identifying these principles for attribute-based architecture evaluation is to better integrate existing techniques and metrics into software architecture practice, not necessarily to invent new attribute-specific techniques and metrics. A longer-term goal is to codify these principles into systematic procedures or methods for architecture evaluation. This paper is an initial step towards identifying the ingredients of such methods.

View Complete Report