An industrial case study of architecture conformance
Jacek Rosik, Andrew Le Gear, Jim Buckley, Muhammad Ali Babar · 2008
A software designer often has little control over, or means of checking, whether his design is being adhered to, once the implementation begins. This 'architectural drift', where the original design of the system and the as-implemented design of the system diverge, can cause serious problems for evolution, maintenance and the comprehensibility of a system if it remains undocumented or uncorrected. The earlier such discrepancies can be identified, the better.