Software Architecture in Practice, 4th Edition

Formal definition of quality attributes is pretty established in the standards world, although few practitioners are aware of them. For example, the product quality model defined in ISO/IEC 25010,13 part of the SQuaRe model, comprises the eight quality characteristics shown in Figure 2.5.

In the real world, the systems we build are part of complex adaptive systems that encompass developers, users, and customers, as well as their environments and organizational contexts. This reality calls for a more dynamic, almost organic approach to architecture and design, one that allows you to learn as you go and adapt your software to ever-cha

In this definition, software architecture consists of the structure of the system (denoted as the heavy black lines supporting the architecture), combined with architecture characteristics (“-ilities”) the system must support, architecture decisions, and finally design principles.

One important thing to note is that agility does not equal time to market. Rather, it is agility + testability + deployability. This is a trap many architects fall into when translating domain concerns. Focusing on only one of the ingredients is like forgetting to put the flour in the cake batter. For example, a domain stakeholder might say somethi

Drive architectural decisions, which are the primary unit of work of architectural activities. Continuous Architecture recommends explicitly focusing on architectural decisions because if we do not understand and capture architectural decisions, we lose the knowledge of tradeoffs made in a particular context. Without this knowledge, the team is inh