Supporting architectural design decisions through risk identification architecture pattern (RIAP) model

• Authors: Thamer Al-Rousan;Shahida Sulaiman;Rosalina Abdul Salam
• Venue: WSEAS Transactions on Information Science and Applications
• Year: 2009

Web projects tend to have a high possibility of loss or failure compared to traditional projects. For this reason, risk management is becoming more emphasized and systemized in Web projects so as to improve the quality of difficult decisions that normally encompass a higher level of risk exposures. Software architecture process is seen as iterative process and the amount of risk-related software architecture artifacts in each iteration of the process differ from that of other iterations. Each iteration of a process needs a unique decision-making process to accommodate certain risk factors. Since each iteration of Web project design has different types of risks in the decision-making process, a decision support system should be tailored to satisfy the specific needs of a particular iteration. In this way, various risks that arise through the life cycle of a project can be constantly checked and monitored. This research aims to support architectural design decision-making process through a risk identification architecture pattern model called RIAP. The model is anticipated to clarify high-level design process and to support active design decisions. Consequently, the software architecture becomes easier to communicate, maintain and evolve. Furthermore, it supports the analysis, improvement, and reuse of architectural design decisions process in future Web projects.