The notion of variability in software architecture: results from a preliminary exploratory study
Proceedings of the 5th Workshop on Variability Modeling of Software-Intensive Systems
Empirically-grounded reference architectures: a proposal
Proceedings of the joint ACM SIGSOFT conference -- QoSA and ACM SIGSOFT symposium -- ISARCS on Quality of software architectures -- QoSA and architecting critical systems -- ISARCS
A knowledge-based framework for reference architectures
Proceedings of the 27th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing
Experiences in evolvability research
Advanced Engineering Informatics
A reference architecture template for software-intensive embedded systems
Proceedings of the WICSA/ECSA 2012 Companion Volume
Reference architectures and variability: current status and future perspectives
Proceedings of the WICSA/ECSA 2012 Companion Volume
Information and Software Technology
On self-adaptation in systems-of-systems
Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Software Engineering for Systems-of-Systems
Benefits and drawbacks of reference architectures
ECSA'13 Proceedings of the 7th European conference on Software Architecture
Towards continuous reference architecture conformance analysis
ECSA'13 Proceedings of the 7th European conference on Software Architecture
Architecting automotive product lines: Industrial practice
Science of Computer Programming
Variability viewpoint to describe reference architectures
Proceedings of the WICSA 2014 Companion Volume
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The concept of Reference Architectures is novel in the business world. However, many architects active in the creation of complex systems frequently use the term Reference Architecture. Yet, these experienced architects do not collectively have a consistent notion of what constitutes a Reference Architecture, what is the value of maintaining the Reference Architecture, what is the best approach to visualizing a Reference Architecture, what is the most appropriate level of abstraction, and how should an architect make use of the Reference Architecture in their work? This paper examines current Reference Architectures and the driving forces behind development of them to come to a collective conclusion on what a Reference Architecture should truly be. It will be shown that a Reference Architecture captures the accumulated architectural knowledge of thousands man-years of work. This knowledge ranges from why (market segmentation, value chain, customer key drivers, application), what (systems, key performance parameters, system interfaces, functionality, variability), to how (design views and diagrams, essential design patterns, main concepts). The purpose of the Reference Architecture is to provide guidance for future developments. The Reference Architecture incorporates the vision and strategy for the future. The Reference Architecture is a reference for the hundreds of teams related to ongoing developments. By providing this reference all these teams have a shared baseline of why, what and how. It is the authors' goal that this paper will facilitate further research in the concepts and ideas presented herein. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng