On the Definition of Software System Architecture
Critina Gacek, Ahmed Abdallah, BK Clark, BW Boehm · 1995
Although several definitions of "software architecture" have been presented, none of them to date enable a reviewer confronted with a complex of diagrams and symbols to determine whether it is an architecture for a system or not. We present a definition of "software system architecture" which provides a set of criteria for making this determination. It is based on making the architectural rationale a first-class citizen in the definition, and on requiring the rationale to ensure that the architecture's components, connections, and constraints define a system that will satisfy a set of defined stakeholder needs for the system. 1. Introduction Intuitively people apply the general term architecture to the usage aspects of the houses and other buildings they deal with, in terms of the nature of the physical structures and the physical arrangement of the structures in relation to each other. Whereas this is the general individual perspective of architecture, there is another very importan...