Develop Evolutionary Scenarios
Conduct the Evaluation
Findings and Recommendations
Develop Evaluation Scenarios
Gather Information Objective Collect all necessary documentation and information about the architecture.
Architecture Documentation: Obtain detailed architectural documentation, including design diagrams, data flow diagrams, and architectural decisions.
Source Code: Review the source code to understand the implementation of the architecture.
Stakeholder Input: Gather input from stakeholders, including developers, users, and business leaders, to understand their perspectives and requirements.
Technical Environment: Understand the technical environment, including hardware, software, and network configurations.
Develop Evaluation Scenarios Create scenarios that represent typical use cases, challenges, and stress conditions.
Use Case Scenarios: Develop scenarios that represent how the system will be used in real-world situations.
Change Scenarios: Create scenarios that involve potential changes to the system, such as adding new features or scaling up.
Failure Scenarios: Develop scenarios that involve potential failures and assess the architecture’s ability to handle them.
Conduct the Evaluation
Conduct the Evaluation Objective
Perform the evaluation based on the selected method and scenarios.
Conduct workshops and meetings with stakeholders to discuss and evaluate the architecture against the defined criteria and scenarios.
Perform simulations and testing to assess how the architecture handles specific scenarios and workloads.
Collect and analyze metrics related to performance, scalability, and other quality attributes.
Identify Risks and Trade-offs
Identify architectural risks, potential trade-offs, and areas for improvement.
Identify risks related to performance, scalability, security, and other factors.
Analyze trade-offs between different architectural choices and their impact on quality attributes.
Develop strategies to mitigate identified risks.
Findings and Recommendations
Document the findings from the evaluation, including strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations.
Create a detailed report documenting the evaluation process, findings, identified risks, and recommendations.
Develop an action plan outlining steps to address weaknesses and improve the architecture.
Review the evaluation results with stakeholders and refine the architecture based on feedback.
Present the findings and recommendations to stakeholders for review and feedback.
Refine the architecture based on the feedback and identified improvements.
Establish a process for ongoing evaluation and refinement of the architecture.
Evaluating software architecture is a systematic process that helps ensure the architecture meets its requirements and can evolve with the needs of the business.
By following these steps, we can help your organization identify potential issues early, make informed decisions, and create architectures that are robust, scalable, and aligned with business goals.