Does the Code Match the Design? A Process for Architecture Evaluation

  • Authors:

  • Affiliations:

  • Venue:
  • ICSM '02 Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Maintenance (ICSM'02)
  • Year:
  • 2002

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Abstract

Constant changes cause software architectures todegenerate. In organizations where developers areinvolved in the maintenance and evolution, systemdegeneration is even more likely to occur. We haveexperimented with a process for detecting deviations fromthe intended design. The process is a quick andinexpensive process that helps to keep the systemarchitecture from veering off course from the planneddesign. It is expected to improve maintainability overtime.The paper describes our evaluation process, themetrics used, and presents results of applying the processin a case study. The case study illustrates the difficultyinvolved in detecting deviations without a systematicapproach. The process used to evaluate the architecture isgeneral and straightforward. We believe the process canbe reused in other contexts.