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Contents 1 Workshop: Reviewing architectural descriptions 1.1 Organizers 1.2 Participants 1.3 Draft framework on reviewing architecture description 1.4 Questions to stimulate discussion: 1.5 How do you use architecture descriptions?

Workshop: Reviewing architectural descriptions

Monday, 18 February 2008, 13:30 - 18:00

Organizers

1. Paul Clements, Software Engineering Institute
2. David Emery, DSCI, Inc.
3. Rich Hilliard, independent consultant
4. Rod Nord, Software Engineering Institute

Participants

Please add yourself to this list by selecting the edit link to the right. Tell us something about your background. Add a few sentences about the working session topic such as your position, questions you would like to see discussed, etc. Comment on the questions below. Tell us how you use architectural description in practice.

You may want to select the watch tab above so you will be notified of changes to this page (e.g., to follow discussion, be notified when the framework is posted)

1. [[User:<wiki id>|<add your name here>]]

Rich Hilliard

David Emery

Danny Weyns

Olaf Zimmermann

Nelis Boucke

Christina von Flach

Hasan Sozer

Bedir Tekinerdogan

Eltjo Poort

Patricia Lago

Thorsten Keuler

Draft framework on reviewing architecture description

The draft framework will be available a week before the workshop for participants to review. Check back then or contact one of the organizers for more information.

Questions to stimulate discussion:

• Is the scope of the proposed framework usable?
• How could it be applied as a part of [DSA] or ISO/IEC 42010 [aka IEEE 1471]?
• Do the current set of example question sets correctly capture stakeholders, architectural concerns, and appropriate/relevant questions?
• What question sets are missing?
• What experiences or lessons learned have you gained in conducting architecture reviews? How do you prepare for an architecture review?
• Do you pre-qualify or otherwise certify architecture descriptions or other artifacts before conducting your reviews? If so, using what techniques and criteria?
• What other aspects of architecture description reviews should be captured, either as suggested guidance, "best practices" or even mandated standards?

How do you use architecture descriptions?

Participants are asked to contribute a concrete example of how you use architecture descriptions in practice. Your example may be an instance or refinement of one of the uses of architecture descriptions taken from ISO 42010/IEEE 1471, clause 4.4, “Uses of architectural descriptions". Your example may be something new so don't be constrained by the list. Once the draft framework for reviewing architecture descriptions is available, we will return to your examples and see how we can characterize them in terms of the concepts of the framework and associated question sets.

• Analysis of alternative architectures
• Business planning for transition from a legacy architecture to a new architecture
• Communications among organizations involved in the development, production, fielding, operation, and maintenance of a system
• Communications between acquirers and developers as a part of contract negotiations
• Criteria for certifying conformance of implementations to the architecture
• Development and maintenance documentation, including material for reuse repositories and training materials
• Input to subsequent system design and development activities
• Input to system generation and analysis tools
• Operational and infrastructure support; configuration management and repair; redesign and maintenance of systems, subsystems, and components
• Planning and budget support
• Preparation of acquisition documents (e.g., requests for proposal and statements of work)
• Review, analysis, and evaluation of the system across the life cycle
• Specification for a group of systems sharing a common set of features, (e.g., product lines)

Examples of how participants use architecture descriptions:

• <Add your example here.>

Other topics to consider