Moving architectural description from under the technology lamppost

  • Authors:

  • Nenad Medvidovic;Eric M. Dashofy;Richard N. Taylor

  • Affiliations:

  • Computer Science Department, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA;Department of Informatics, Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA;Department of Informatics, Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA

  • Venue:
  • Information and Software Technology
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

In 2000, we published an extensive study of existing software architecture description languages (ADLs), which has served as a useful reference to software architecture researchers and practitioners. Since then, circumstances have changed. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) has gained popularity and wide adoption, and many of the ADLs we studied have been pushed into obscurity. We argue that this progression can be attributed to early ADLs' nearly exclusive focus on technological aspects of architecture, ignoring application domain and business contexts within which software systems and development organizations exist. These three concerns - technology, domain, and business - constitute three ''lampposts'' needed to appropriately ''illuminate'' software architecture and architectural description.